Echo Media has a strong partnership with the innovative State of Text mobile company that has made a significant impact in the sales and mobile world. In 2009, State of Text began a campaign with Hooters restaurants that included a call to action within their advertisements. It was to text in a keyword in order to receive a free entrée. With the launch of the four week SMS campaign within TV spots and video-on-demand, the impact on customers proved to be very impressive. Hooters saw a sales increase of 32% and an addition of 600 new consumers to the Hooters mobile database. The SMS promotion offered customers an attention grabbing offer of free wings with the submission of a simple keyword to one particular short code.

In 2013, State of Text and Hooters rolled out a similar campaign designed to appeal to football fans. The offer was to win a trip to the Super Bowl which was used to locate the sports fan segment of consumers. The benefit of this particular segmented marketing strategy is that it opened up the potential for target marketing that would appeal specifically to those very people. Over 50,000 people entered the sweepstakes, which significantly augmented the Hooters consumer database. Knowing that these 50,000 people were interested in sports themed offers, they were then able to market to them again with future in-store promotions with a similar theme.

Utilizing the SMS promotion strategy has proven to be effective for many companies including Target, American Eagle Outfitters, Arby’s, and Hooters, to name a few. It provides an immediate, easy way to interact with consumers and track their interests. SMS also has an amazingly high open rate because the customer has opted-in to receive these promotional offers straight to their mobile. If you would like to learn more about an SMS mobile campaign, contact our mobile guru, Steve Setlock, at 770.955.3535 x 110.