Mobilized Marketing: How to Drive Sales, Engagement, and Loyalty Through Mobile Devices

Chapter 22

The Brands Rebound from the Recession

Meanwhile, mobile had become of greater interest to brand marketers as well as the agencies that service them, be they advertising, promotional, or public relations firms.

Attesting to mobile marketing’s traction and Hipcricket’s leadership with such clients as Nestlé, HBO, and Arby’s, the company doubled its total campaign count in 2009 and surpassed 50,000.

Hipcricket further teamed with major brands and media to create and run integrated mobile programs that led to permission-based databases with member counts well into the six figures. The company saw significant response for mobile coupons and offers that led to trials and sales. In response, it introduced a measureable solution that placed mobile coupons within reach of the then more than 240 million Americans who had text messaging on their mobile phones.

Based on patent-pending technology, the new mobile coupon solution enabled any business with a point of sale system that accepted credit cards to fully track and measure the redemption and usage patterns of mobile coupons to increase customer loyalty and sales.

Selling on the Fear Factor

Doug Stovall, Hipcricket’s senior vice president of sales and client services, explains the brand marketer’s use of mobile in 2009 this way:

“The Internet happened 10 years ago and you had a lot of companies and marketers that missed it. And they are so terrified of missing the next one—and right now they are getting hit with the next one ...