A new multichannel campaign from Auntie Anne’s puts mobile in the driver’s seat to create awareness and sales for a brand new product.

Pretzel chain Auntie Anne’s recently introduced the Honey Whole Grain Pretzel and is supporting the launch with a promotion that includes QR codes, SMS, mobile advertising, a mobile game and a mobile-optimized site. The promotion also includes a Facebook app and other digital elements as well as in-store sampling.

“Mobile played the most significant role in this promotion,” said Jennifer Cadicamo, senior director of strategic services at ePrize, Pleasant Ridge, MI.

“Whether they experience us with a digital ad, when walking through the mall or on Facebook, we wanted to make sure that wherever the consumer was, we were there,” she said. “Additionally, developing engaging and sustainable elements was important.

“We needed to make sure that all the elements are tied together, everything looks the same – that it looks like it is one promotion.”

QR code activation
EPrize helped Auntie Anne’s develop and execute the promotion, including doing the media plan and buy.

The Honey Whole Grain Pretzel promotion is available at all 1,325 Auntie Anne’s locations around the country. During the promotion, customers will have the opportunity to enter a sweepstakes and win instant prizes.

Auntie Anne’s goal is to sell 1 million of the new pretzels over the next few months.

The decoder card for the promotion.

To introduce the new pretzel, Auntie Anne’s will host sampling events on four dates in January, February and March.

At the events, customers will receive a decoder card with a unique code. On the card is also a QR code that can be scanned to bring customers to a mobile-optimized site where they can enter a sweepstakes for a chance to win a grand prize.

There is also a URL on the card that recipients can use when they get home to visit the desktop site.

Pretzel rolling game
On the microsite for the promotion, users can play a pretzel rolling and twisting game for a chance to win an instant prize.

At the end of the game, there is a coupon that users can redeem on their next visit to Auntie Anne’s. The chain is testing various offers to see which do the best job of driving users back to the store.

“We developed the instant win part of the promotion with mobile in mind,” Ms. Cadicamo said. “Making sure it worked well on a phone was our first priority.

During times when sampling is not taking place, in-store signs will inform customers that they can text a keyword to a short code to enter the sweepstakes. Those who do will receive a message back with a link to the mobile optimized microsite.

The primary target for the campaign is stroller moms in the mall. These consumers tend to have a high adoption rate for smartphones and actively engaged with their devices to go online, for gaming and to check-in on social networks.

The effort also includes online and mobile advertising on sites and blogs frequented by moms that includes a link back to the microsite.

Coupling a multichannel approach with in-store activation can help drive awareness as well as trial for a new product.

“We are trying to make it as simple and easy as possible depending on which method consumers want to use to enter,” Ms. Cadicamo said.

“The promotion is not only driving behavior in store but also encourages frequency of purchase,” she said.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York