Busy Signals: Interactive Marketing Hits Speed-Dial

Sixty-one percent of marketers have earmarked up to 10% of their 2005 marketing budgets for interactive programs (including Internet and text messaging), per PROMO’s January survey of marketing execs. Most marketers (55%) spent less than 5% of their 2004 marketing budgets on interactive efforts.

Cutting-edge campaigns feel like exclusive, private conversations between consumers and brands—often with intriguing messages or inside jokes.

General Motors’ Pontiac just finished a phone-photo sweepstakes that had consumers on the prowl for a G6 sedan. Entrants to the Catch a G6 sweeps snapped a photo of a G6 with their camera phones, then sent it to [email protected] for a chance to win $1 million. Pontiac staged cars in 15 cities and hosted radio live remote broadcasts at auto shows and other events to give photo bugs access to the G6. Vigilante, New York, and Digitas, Boston, were among the agencies that handled for GM.

Players could also e-mail a G6 image, but Pontiac targeted camera-phone owners (there are an estimated 215 million worldwide) in an effort to reach younger, tech-savvy drivers. Pontiac felt this format better suits that audience than its past promos, including the giveaway of hundreds of G6s on Oprah and online voting for the NCAA’s top weekly football and basketball performers through its Game Changing Performance partnership with the NCAA, which awards scholarship dollars to universities, said spokesman Rick Crooks.

“Our objective was to utilize nontraditional media as a promotional tool,” said Pontiac brand manager Mary Kubitskey. “Picture phones are becoming common-place, especially among the young, educated and affluent, although they’re not heavily used in marketing. We attempted to tap into the culture by using traditional advertising to boost this more nontraditional means of promotion.”

Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz USA this month gives a sneak preview of its 2006 M-Class SUV to the 10 million TV subscribers of EchoStar Communications Corp.’s DISH Network satellite TV. An online demo can be viewed at Turnermediagroup.com/mercedes.

A 30-second TV spot includes a pop-up message that lets viewers use their TV remotes to link to an interactive environment to preview an expanded version of the TV spot “Test Track,” access a photo gallery and order brochures. Those requesting information will get a direct mail invite about an upcoming 35-city ride-and-drive road rally. DISH Network and Denver-based Turner Media Group created the campaign with an assist from OpenTV Corp., San Francisco.

“Mercedes-Benz is taking advantage of emerging platforms to reach the right people with the right messages,” said Mercedes VP-marketing Michelle Cervantez in a statement.

Then there’s the underwear. Unilever recruited student “ambassadors” for its AXE personal-care brand by cruising laundromats near college campuses and tossing a black thong printed with the come-on “Do you have what it takes to be the next AXE Ambassador?” into the dryers of likely candidates. A URL on the thongs let wannabe ambassadors submit their resumes online. Those hired get a stipend for throwing AXE parties, giving out samples and building buzz for the brand. GMR Marketing, New Berlin, WI, handles.

Print publishers, too, are making their ads interactive. For example, teenage girls, who cherish the texting and photo snapping capabilities of their cell phones, will soon be able to leaf through an issue of ELLEgirl Magazine, take a photo of an ad for a pair of must-have shoes and with a few keystrokes send it off to Mobot, a provider of mobile visual search technology, which responds via text with store locations.

Through the technology, dubbed “mobotized,” readers can also purchase products, get free samples or discounts or product information. They can participate in games, like scavenger hunts, and sweepstakes, all sponsored by the brands in the ads. The 12-month partnership is in the soft-launch phase with an initial ad coming in the May issue that tells readers about the new technology. A sweepstakes awarding a trip to London encourages readers to register online to get search capability. A roll out is expected with the August or September issue.

“Print has always taken a look at making the medium more interactive,” said Deborah Burns, VP-publisher of ELLEgirl. “Everything before this was cumbersome and difficult. What appealed to us was this interactive technology had found a way to take something ubiquitous, the cell phone, and make the magazine come to life in a new way.”

ELLEgirl, a Hachette Filipacchi publication, has 500,000 subscribers and 1.4 million readers—average age 17—per issue.

Other titles testing the technology include Vibe, Vibe Vixon and Fairchild Publications’ Jane, which pulled a 1%-plus response rate from readers when it mobotized last September.

The ads used promotions and giveaways to trigger action: Calvin Klein gave away jean jackets; Maybelline gave away mascara; Oakley offered an autographed poster of snowboarder Bleiler; and Samsung dangled a cell phone.

“The advertiser does not need to alter their ad in anyway,” said Lauren Bigelow, VP-product management and marketing for Mobot, Lexington, MA. “The picture can launch a thousand different options. That’s the beauty of the whole thing.”

The technology goes beyond print ads. For example, consumers could snap a photo of a CD cover to get ring tones or music samples via cell phone.

Network TV execs are extending their on-air content with text messaging, Web logs and Internet-only video story lines. Fans of NBC crime drama Crossing Jordan can help one of the medical examiners, Nigel Townsend, solve the Beacon Hill murders on Nigelblog.com. An online diary posted by Crossing Jordan writers asks viewers to review fictitious police reports, crime-scene photos and autopsy results to help solve the case and vie for rewards. (Viewers also tune in to episodes on NBC to get clues.) A sweepstakes awards weekly prize packages worth $300. The grand-prize winner, announced on March 25, gets the prize package and a phone call from actor Steve Valentine, who plays Townsend on the show.

The blog “is just another way to engage people in the world of the show. It’s like a big game of Clue,” said executive producer Tim Kring. “We wanted to have somewhat of a cool factor.”

The blog—and sweeps—helps build buzz for a mature show (now in its fourth season) by making fans part of the action. Since the blog appeared, NBC reported more than 269,300 page views on Nigelblog.com and expects that number to grow, officials said. Kring acknowledged NBC’s difficulty generating new buzz about the show that is entering its fifth season. The answer? Let fans be a “part” of the show through an online experience, he said.

“It’s a very competitive time,” Kring said. “Everybody is trying to squeeze as much as they can out of this limited pie of viewers, which is getting sliced up into smaller and smaller [pieces]. “We’re looking for any and all resources we can to entice new viewers. People love the whole idea of being inside the experience.”