The greatest text marketing campaigns in history

Modern marketers are now spending huge proportions of their budget on the latest pay-per-click campaigns and social media advertising without really knowing whether the returns will add up.

So if you want to make the most of your money, through a channel that continues to grow, text marketing still produces the best results. To celebrate this we are going to run through some of the most intelligent, successful and creative campaigns ever invented. If you think you can top these, leave a comment!

Orange Wednesdays

If anyone could suggest a more popular text marketing campaign than this, speak up. Customers with Orange (and more latterly, EE) received 2 for 1 cinema tickets every Wednesday simply by texting FILM to 241.

One of the later TV advertising campaigns by EE starring Kevin Bacon

It was a winning formula because they blended a great offer with a memorable shortcode. It’s so simply it’s almost impossible to forget. And this is a vital part of any successful text marketing campaign.

The curtains finally closed in February after 10 years of cheap movies. Bosses at EE - the company behind the promotion - claimed "viewing habits had evolved" and that they are working on a similar text marketing campaign for films being streamed on TVs and tablets.

Over its lifespan the campaign attracted millions of customers to the network, to make it well worth the cost of the lucrative cinema deals.

Papa John’s

The timing of a text can be crucial for good results. Imagine receiving a text with a pizza offer that is just too good to be true... towards the end of a long day at work.

This is what a franchise branch of Papa John’s did when they sent texts advertising any Pizza, of any size for £6.99 to all 8,100 customers on their mobile marketing database. Over the course of three weeks, the franchisees sales increased by an incredible 33%.

Voting in Switzerland

Although not a commercial venture, this campaign illustrates the versatility of SMS really well. The Swiss government has supported e-voting, which includes votes by texts, in a number of regional constituencies to help drive participation.

In the area of Bertschikon, initial trials showed 16% of citizens used SMS to cast their vote on election day, for a variety of different reasons. E-voting has also proven to be particularly popular among a younger demographic, that has historically been a lot less likely to vote.

BMW

In Germany, BMW devised a great way of using pictures in their campaign through MMS. In the colder months they promote winter tyres to all of their customers. But instead of just sending a standalone picture of the tyre, for this campaign they sent a picture of it fitted to the same model and colour of car the owner had purchased. Genius! This is just one way of adding a personal touch to a campaign.

This is how the ad appeared on customer handsets

By adding some important legal info on the legal requirement of winter tyres, BMW provided a real incentive to follow the offer and make an order.

The results of the campaign showed a 30% rise in winter tyre sales for that season. BMW were able to resonate with their customers simply by personalising the promotion - which is incredibly easy to do with a good text marketing platform.

Still producing results…

Text marketing is often overlooked by those looking for the latest technology they can use to market and sell. But the reality is that mobile ownership has continued to increase across every age range in the population and SMS is still a powerful tool. Text message marketing is still the most direct way of reaching your targeted audience. Around 93% of us now own a mobile phone, and 97% of all text messages are opened and read - so even if you think text marketing is old news, results show it’s still producing the goods.

It’s so easy to get started too - sign up today at www.redsms.co.uk. Take some inspiration from these great examples and one day your campaign could be as successful as Orange Wednesdays was for Orange!

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