g8wave, in partnership with The
Times newspaper, devised a fantastic new idea for a DVD giveaway
promotion that ran for one week in the summer of 2006!
Collect 7 Classic Children's series DVD's - Free with
The Times!
Readers collected the first DVD free with the Saturday Times. They
could collect each individual DVD by texting in each day, or opt to
text in for the whole set at the end of the week.
Readers were asked to text in with the trigger, followed by their
name, address and postcode - this eliminated the inconvenience of transcribing
the records and counting the coupons that would otherwise have been
sent to the handling/fulfilment house. We were able to give stats to
The Times on a real-time basis, so they were constantly aware of how
much stock was needed and how successful the promotion was in its early
stages.
Just over 100,000 readers sent in a text for this promotion (comprising
readers who ordered the full set of DVDs, as well as those who were
just after individual copies they had missed during the week).
On the Sunday, we had the highest number of orders between
1pm and 9pm – proof that readers are late risers at the weekend!
Monday saw the largest volume of orders occur in the morning
(8-10am) then during lunchtime (12noon-2pm) and lastly teatime (5-7pm).
The only time readers were not responding was between 2 and 4 am!
The two common errors highlighted by readers were:
• Incorrect formatting
• Non readable text
For erroneous text messages sent in, the reader would
receive a bounceback requesting them to send their details again.
This was sent FREE of charge!
If we look at the number of messages received vs issues encountered
whilst running this week-long promotion, we will see there was an error
rate of less than 1% - a phenomenally low figure.
Media Guardian: The first newspaper
promotion allowing readers to order a free DVD film via text messaging
generated more than 100,000 responses. "It
was an experiment and it worked," said Simon Bell, the Times Newspapers
Marketing Director. "We try to embrace new technology across the
board and that includes promotions. We are constantly trying to get
close to our consumers and understand their changing behaviour and
text is a more convenient medium for consumers. This would encourage
us to use such a mechanism again," he said. The promotion was
a joint venture between DVD supplier The Communications Practice and
g8wave, which devises mobile phone strategies for newspapers.
Contact
us for more details on what g8wave can do for you.
Or text: g8wave (space) your
name / company to 81800 and we'll contact
you!
