New bBoing Texting and Email Service Merges the Technologies of Mobile and Online Marketing Mobile marketing has entered a new era – the bBoing era
Tuesday, 03 July 2007
Imagine this scene. A consumer spots a bBoing keyword on an in-store product display. Wanting more information, the consumer text messages bBoing the keyword and their email address. BBoing immediately sends an email with additional product information to the person's inbox.
Thus, a one-on-one relationship has been established for ongoing email communication. Moreover, brand recognition has been achieved, action has been inspired, and a prospect has been converted into a buyer. This is bBoing.
Launched by parent company Summit Projects of Hood River, Ore., a leading Northwest interactive agency, bBoing is a mobile communications agency and technology platform that works with all major cellular networks, offering an industry-first service connecting SMS (Short Message Service) text messaging and email marketing.
“It’s the first service of its kind in the country,” says company CEO Craig Sabina. “With bBoing, marketers can offer a text it call-to-action in their offline communications, generating a follow-up email and thus dramatically improving success rates. Our parent company has a decade of experience with permission-based email. With bBoing, consumers who text it will get follow-up text messages and emails that are relevant, entertaining and designed to drive sales.”
An increasing number of business and special event managers are using text messaging as a marketing tool; American Idol is perhaps the most prominent example, with 14 million viewers texting in their votes each season. But bBoing sings a more powerful tune, taking text messaging one step further.
A bBoing-generated email provides content and information relevant to the end users’ request, while providing results that can be tracked and monitored. “We live in a busy, noisy world,” explained Nathan Wagner, director of sales. “Consumers can use bBoing to respond more easily to marketing messages that interest them. At the same time, marketers can use bBoing to track marketing efforts with unerring precision.”
BBoing recently completed a test campaign with the fast-food giant Quiznos in three stores and two markets, Lawrence, Kansas, and Hood River, Ore. The results demonstrated bBoing’s potential to change the face of marketing.
According to bBoing, Quiznos used bBoing to offer customers instant in-store coupons on their phone, while later engaging those same customers with an email message call-to-action – a chance to win an I-Pod shuffle. All aspects of the program were successful, including in-store response, “open rate” of the follow-up email, and “click through” conversion rate to visit the Quiznos Web site for additional sweepstakes information.
Use of bBoing technology is not limited to restaurant promotions. Companies can use bBoing services for content delivery, such as product brochures or media materials; trade shows and events; product promotions, and more. The application of bBoing is only limited by the imagination of the marketer.
Moreover, bBoing is free to the end-user and works with all major cellular phone companies. “We believe consumers will respond to specific offers and opt-in for further information and promotions if the service is free, 100-percent permission-based, relevant, rewarding, and easy to use,” Wagner said.
According to eMarketer, more than 400 billion text messages were sent worldwide in 2006, 30 percent by U.S. cellular subscribers. There are more than 230 million text-message capable mobile phones in America. That’s 83 percent of all households, and nearly 70 percent of 18- to 39-year-old cell phone users text message daily.
To experience bBoing firsthand, simply text the word bboing and your email address to 226464. A text message will be returned to your phone immediately, while at the same time more information on bBoing will be delivered via email.