Consumer packaged goods brand Hidden Valley’s recent rich media messaging campaign generated 230,000 branded impressions when users shared the multimedia content to Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter, although the brand only sent the content through a short code.

Last month’s “Twist on Tonight” campaign was aimed towards busy moms and hectic dinner patterns. As a modern solution for busy families, Hidden Valley’s mobile program allowed consumers to sign up to receive weekly recipes and kid-friendly activities created by moms.

“The Hidden Valley RMM campaign was successful because it met a particular customer need,” said Cezar Kolodziej, CEO, president and co-founder of Iris Mobile, Chicago.

“By really understanding their customers, Hidden Valley Ranch was able to see an opportunity to provide value in a meaningful way.”

Appetite for more
Mobile messaging is the most direct and personal way to reach consumers. Brands have an opportunity to leverage this natural consumer behavior via mobile to get their customers to act and while SMS is a great technology to get direct response, RMM goes one step further by sending more engaging content, such as images and video, and can increase response rates.

Video consumers could access via Hidden Valley’s RMM approach

The most hectic time of day for the majority of moms (55 percent) is between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., according to a recent KRC Research survey. Also known as crunch time, it is a juggling act of figuring out what is for dinner, fighting grocery store crowds, helping with homework, cooking, cleaning and getting kids to bed – all while summoning the energy and inspiration for quality family time.

To help moms make crunch time more seamless, Hidden Valley’s “Twist on Tonight” solution allowed rich content such as long text, video and images, to be delivered to mobile devices with opt-in by texting RANCH to 40679.

By sending a crunch-time recipe and related activity via RMM, customers were able to access the information with the familiarity and immediacy of a text message, and could download, view and share the creative content with one click.

The success of this campaign is directly related to a deep understanding of a customer need, a common behavior, and the appropriate execution.

Acting on instinct
The efficacy of mobile in promoting consumer acquisition and cultivating loyalty via mobile is evident in targeted programs and short-term campaigns.

Individuals seek out media and content to meet the need for immediate utility and inspiration. Consumers interact with content looking for task facilitation and emotional gratification, so a brand’s content strategy should address these requirements which will engage loyalty building.

Mobile CRM is most effective at inspiring consumers who are frequent users with a high purchase rate and strong brand loyalty who are in need of on-the-go solutions or services. RMM is an extremely effective strategy for acquiring loyalty points because it takes advantage of consumers’ natural behavior on the phone and is designed to address and overcome the limitations of text-based, email or video campaigns.

Express shoppers who spent $100 or more online, in-store or over the phone just after Valentine’s Day this year were eligible to participate in the “One Hot Date” campaign, where a call-to-action on the bottom of  qualified receipts encouraged consumers to text in keywords such as “DATE,” “HOT” and “LAVA” to activate specific short codes.

Promoted campaign

Consumers who texted in the information were sent a rich media message with a code that could be redeemed on Fandango for two movie tickets valid for use during the Valentine’s Day weekend.

Similarly, plus size fashion retailer Avenue partnered with Iris Mobile on a nationwide mobile campaign that involved sending opt-ed in customers’ weekly messaging promotions inducing them to patronize Avenue retail shops. By using RMM, Avenue achieved a 97 percent open rate of messages and an ROI of approximately 6,600 percent.

Rich media messaging allows brands to visually bring a campaign to life without the text and character limitations imposed by traditional text-based SMS. Moreover, as customers always have their mobile devices at hand, they typically read text messages within just three minutes, and data is not required to receive the rich content sent via RMM.

RMM sees twice the engagement of simple, plain text, because with features like calendar invites, passbook downloads, links, and social sharing the content can be much more interactive and personal.  The success of RMM campaigns is a result of a true understanding of user behavior and tendencies.

“Twist on Tonight enabled Hidden Valley to deliver recipe content directly to mobile users, which was a first for the brand,” Mr. Kolodziej said.

“This initial campaign has allowed us to build a sizable database of users that we can tap into for any future programming we may pursue.”

Final Take
Michelle is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York