SMS Case Studies

How SMS is building business

Case Study 1.In-house communications
PlusOne is helping outlet managers be kept informed of when new marketing initiatives are commencing, on behalf of a national financial institution. Every message is unique and details the recipient’s name, when new TV ads are starting, and detail channel, program name and time. This information varies depending on the state and region, but merging info means unique information can be delivered to each person.

Case Study 2.SMS more successful than newspaper ads
A furniture retailer trialled SMS to advertise carpark and out-of-the-container sales. Messages were sent to their client database and encouraged people to come and buy a bargain.
The results are so good that they have ceased expensive newspaper advertising and now rely solely on SMS advertising.

Case Study 3. MacDonalds boosts sales using SMS
When McDonald’s Australia ran its first SMS voucher campaign in Bundaberg, Queensland, it saw very healthy SMS voucher redemption rates.
This redemption rate was aided by the design of the voucher campaign, which was integrated with a competition run through a local radio station. Listeners entered the radio competition by SMSing in their name. In reply, they received a confirmation of their entry with an SMS voucher attached. They could take this voucher to either of the two Bundaberg McDonald’s restaurants and receive one of three offers. Additionally, the customer was asked to reply to the SMS voucher with a “Y” to receive more McDonald’s offers, which most recipients did.
McDonald’s was able to send out further vouchers just before lunch time.
Because every phone number is unique. McDonald’s collected names in their campaign, next time they may choose to ask for age, allowing better targeting and response rates.
Because of the infiltration of mobile phones in society, it is a perfect promotional entry tool and voucher/coupon delivery and redemption mechanism.

Case Study 4. Star boy band to SMS its fan base
Boy band BBMak made use an SMS text messaging campaign to support the release of their new album and build up a database of their fans' for label Telstar Records.
Thousands of flyer, posters and postcardsfeatured a phone number, to which fans txted the word 'BBMAK' for a chance to win a new mobile phone. Another message was to respondents on 28 May, the day the band's album Sooner or Later was released.

Case Study 5. Reminders to use company's service
A national Australian professional service organisation sends out reminder messages to clients. The service works well with minimal drop-out rates and good responses. The organisation has been doing this with us for five years, evidence of the effectiveness of the marketing strategy. 

Case Study 6. SMS marketing helps McDonalds
Marketing products to mobile phones using SMS messages has been proven to increase sales, according to a test study carried out in Sweden.
Named e-street, the project signed up 2,500 mobile phone-users in the town of Lulea to receive SMS messages of special offers from 150 local organisations.
After the volunteers were sent an SMS for a McDonalds burger offer, 25 per cent of the targeted users took up the offer.
The McDonalds in question broke its turnover records during the test period and it jumped to the top of the McDonalds league table in Sweden.

Case Study 7. Hilton uses SMS with success
The Hilton Hotel group has successfully used SMS messaging to increase guest numbers to its hotels and build customer loyalty.
The hotel sent out important marketing messages such as specials and promotions directly to its members’ mobile handsets.
SMS allowed the hotel to get the messages out instantly and at the most appropriate time of day.
The use of SMS as a direct marketing tool resulted in a 10-25% uptake of offers sent out by the hotel and proved to be an integral part its direct marketing and loyalty strategy.

Case Study 8. Just what the doctor ordered
A Queensland-based chiropractor, long plagued with no-shows of appointments made perhaps weeks earlier or last minute cancellations, now sends reminders by SMS to patients of their appointments that day and asking they notify the clinic if they cannot make the appointment. This has increased the successful appointment rate and also allows opportunities to fill cancelled appointments.

Case Study 9. Cheap fuel a great prompt
Petrol price monitoring group FuelWatch advertised an SMS competition to win $250 of free fuel on the back of delivery trucks. In 3 weeks 500 entries were received from just 10 trucks operating in Brisbane. In addition to the creation of a database, which can be used for further marketing, by asking respondents to enter a letter corresponding to the trucks regular route, the best routes could then be determined for future campaigns. Heightened awareness of the FuelWatch brand was also created as well as its website URL.

Case Study 10. Communicating with club membership
A large Australian sporting club started using our SMS service to advertise bistro specials. It proved very successful and now the club uses SMS to promote special days (grand final on the big screen, etc). The club also used SMS for membership renewal reminders. This worked very well, with most members renewing membership within three days of the message being sent, including many who renewed straight away as they were in the club. This was be best renewal turnaround time the club has ever experienced and also led to a number of new memberships.

Case Study 11. Eagle Boys
We helped run a test case competition for an Eagle Boys store to generate a marketing list. Using a coded entry competition, entrants had to buy a pizza to get an entry. Instant prize winners had to show the winning coupon and the message to collect their instant prize - of Eagle Boys products. A major prize of a holiday was given to one winner. The marketing list has been used to good effect to promote special offers. Case Study 12. Win a mobile phone competition
Plusone was asked by a Telstra Shop to provide an SMS competition where entry was promoted through a series of television advertisements. The result was a greater awareness of Telstra Shop and its services, the generation of a marketing list. The entry records also were used to analyse the number of responses at different times and TV station program scheduling. This allows more targeted advertising schedules for future competitions based on entry rates for time frames and show popularity.

Case Study 13. SMS in sales promotion
Zodiac Group Australia Pty Ltd / Zodiac Pool Cleaners used SMS to collect and validate warranty information, AND verify and process cashback claims. On-pack stickers identifying promotional merchandise provided consumers with a unique code that they were required to submit via SMS; unique codes were used to identify SKU, providing valuable reporting intelligence and verification criteria. Upon stringent back-end verification, the consumer was required to SMS the warranty number from their purchase to claim a $150 cashback against their outlay ($1,000+). Source MMA Awards 2006

Case Study 14. In-house competition
A financial broking company asked PlusOne to run an in-house competition for its brokers. Each week every broker was sent a personalised SMS detailing where they were on a leader board for financial product sales. This appealed to the competitive spirit of the brokers who were in the running for weekly and a grand prize and helped generate increased participation amongst brokers.

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