Meow Darling, Catwoman Here

Posted on by Chief Marketer Staff

How would like to get a call on your mobile phone from Catwoman?

Okay, you’re not going to be talking with Catwoman personally. But you could see a short video clip of her, attached to a promo for the movie, thanks to advanced mobile technology.

That’s the word from Mike Baker, CEO of Enpocket, a Boston-based firm that specializes in entertainment marketing via mobile phones. His company has helped promote several motion picture franchises, including “Bridget Jones,” “Star Wars” and the most recent “Harry Potter” movie.

We just talked with Mike, a veteran marketer, on this new phenomenon. Despite his high-tech savvy and grasp of the youth market, he revealed one interesting personal detail: “I’m not a big movie fan.”

CM Plus: What are the big marketing innovations in movieland?

Baker: The medium that has generated interest for the studios is MMS—multi-media messaging. With MMS, you can send a rich, multi-media message with a sound file and a graphic file. For instance, we’re now doing up to five or six seconds of full-motion video that we push to MMS-capable phones. We did it for “Bridget Jones.” We follow that up with a sort of timed power-point presentation.

CM Plus: How many people have this capability on their mobile phones?

Baker: About 20% of the people in the youth category. But we’re getting response rates of between 5% and 20%.

CM Plus: How do you define response?

Baker: There’s a call to action within the campaign. For example, you might enter a Zip code to find a local theater, or put in your phone number to receive updates or extra material about a character. Or, you could click here and buy a screen saver or a ring-tone taken from the movie.

CM Plus: Can you buy tickets?

Baker: Not yet, but we’re going to do that. The mobile consumer will run the ticket off the phone. We’re not in the ticket sale business, but we will bring in the appropriate vendors and e-commerce connections. We’ve also done some couponing. The consumer gets a coupon displayable on the phone that they show at the point of purchase. We use unique codes on the phones. This year, we’re looking to use some barcodes. The retailers will use digital barcode scanners.

CM Plus:Can the mobile operators handle it?

Baker: In the second quarter, you will see basically the majority of the U.S. operators with MMS gateways open.

CM Plus: Compared with that, SMS text messaging seems almost old-fashioned.

Baker: SMS is the base mechanic used for mobile marketing. If you poll the 18-to-24 year-old category, 60% have used SMS in the last 30 days. It has the benefit of being very uncluttered for marketing, so you tend to get a very high response rate.

CM Plus: And how do people get these messages? You just blast them out?

Baker: It’s an opt-in medium, so we’re not sending marketing messages to consumers unless they ask for it. It’s being defined at birth as 100% opt-in.

CM Plus: How do you invite them to opt in?

Baker: We’re leveraging existing media spends on print, outdoor , broadcast. It’s not unlike putting a URL on print advertising. We also use banner ads. More people are browsing the Web on the phone.

CM Plus What the cost for MMS?

Baker: The data is still emerging so I’ll give you examples from Europe. There, an MMS campaign might be from $20,000 to $50,000. On a fully loaded basis, depending on the operator and the territory, MMS is going to cost between 40 cents and 85 cents per contact, while a direct mail piece is about a dollar. An SMS campaign might cost from $15,000 to $35,000.

CM Plus: And how do you calculate return on investment?

Baker: We’re thinking about that as digital marketers, but it’s a little early for that.

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