With a 400% increase in customer signups, Yamaha storms on to mobile circuit with innovative mobile engagement campaign created by Textopoly, Inc.

Costa Mesa CA- December 2, 2009 – Textopoly, Inc., a bleeding-edge mobile engagement company specializing [...]]]> Check out our latest release below.  We’re really proud of the work we’ve been doing with Yamaha.

With a 400% increase in customer signups, Yamaha storms on to mobile circuit with innovative mobile engagement campaign created by Textopoly, Inc.

Costa Mesa CA- December 2, 2009 – Textopoly, Inc., a bleeding-edge mobile engagement company specializing in all things mobile, and Yamaha Watercraft, which oversees the sales, marketing and distribution of Yamaha WaveRunner® personal watercraft and sport boats in the US, announced today the success of their new mobile marketing campaign which has seen a 400 percent increase in consumer signups through a unique mobile sweepstakes. Yamaha’s new sweepstakes give consumers a weekly chance to win water-sport accessories as well as a chance at the grand prize of a 2010 Yamaha VX Cruiser®. Additionally, through Textopoly, Yamaha launched 2 full mobile websites for WaveRunners and Boats to better interact, engage, and create a compelling dialogue with their customers.

“Our brand and our products are important aspects of people’s lives, and we are constantly looking for new and exciting ways to engage our customer base. The consumption models for information have radically changed toward those that are more immediate, interactive and relevant,” said Bryan Seti, National Marketing Manager for Yamaha Watercraft. “To complement our Internet and new media activities aimed at this new paradigm of communication, we researched the opportunity in mobile and established the solution requirements we needed to make it a success. Textopoly stood out from the pack with a turnkey offering and a multi-faceted mobile engagement strategy that has been pivotal to our success.”

Textopoly’s solution included mo:base, a Web-based SMS database management and broadcast tool that could be applied across both Yamaha product lines. The SMS strategy was furthered by the creation of individual WAP sites to personalize the relationship with customers, provide timely and relevant content and present a compelling reason for subscribers to stay connected with the brand on their mobile device.

“We’re very excited to work with a forward thinking brand like Yamaha,” said Naushad Huda, CEO of Textopoly, Inc. “Yamaha has made a strong statement by incorporating innovative mobile tactics within their traditional marketing strategy. Yamaha has definitely become a pioneer within its industry and we’re excited to work with them to develop more innovative, high ROI mobile campaigns in 2010.”

Textopoly helped Yamaha Watercraft leverage the unique attributes of mobile and reach their current level of mobile marketing ingenuity with SMS, web-to-mobile widgets and targeted WAP sites, integrated with feeds from Twitter and Pitch Engine’s RSS.

To visit the Yamaha Watercraft WAP sites, please visit www.waverunner.mobi or www.yamahaboats.mobi from your mobile device.  To join the SMS campaign, please text WAVE to 70734 or BOAT to 70734.  Message and data rates may apply.

About Yamaha Watercraft
Yamaha Boats and WaveRunner personal watercraft are products of the Yamaha Watercraft Group, a division of Yamaha Motor Corporation, USA. Headquartered in Kennesaw, GA, the Yamaha Watercraft Group is responsible for the sales, marketing and distribution of Yamaha watercraft in the United States.

About Textopoly, Inc.

Textopoly is a mobile engagement agency that creates highly customized campaigns for brands and agencies wanting to reach their audiences via mobile. Whether it is through texting, the mobile internet, or applications, they bring the brand straight to the users fingertips through easy and fun interactions. Through an evolving form of marketing, as well as research and dedication to both the technology at hand and its best practices, Textopoly is becoming the leading pioneer in setting the trends in mobile engagements. Visit Textopoly’s brand new website at www.textopoly.com.

From the moment I landed in Europe mobile campaigns assisting alongside traditional marketing campaigns are widespread. Alcohol brand Carlsberg is using a mobile call to action with a fun campaign called “What’s on, where?”. User can text CARLSBERG to the short code to get information on where the party’s at! The call to [...]]]>

From the moment I landed in Europe mobile campaigns assisting alongside traditional marketing campaigns are widespread. Alcohol brand Carlsberg is using a mobile call to action with a fun campaign called “What’s on, where?”. User can text CARLSBERG to the short code to get information on where the party’s at! The call to actions are properly placed on coasters at all pubs in Dublin and to increase participation, the texts for the Carlsberg campaign are a freetext which does not take away from the users standard rate messaging plan. In the States this is called Free to the End User (FTEU), but is not supported cross-carrier (surprise, surprise). Currently Carriers that will approve a FTEU campaign are T-Mobile, AT&T and perhaps Verizon (yes, “perhaps”). Whether or not U.S. Carriers will support a program from a alcohol brand is on a case-by-case basis with the fundamental thought that if the program encourages a user to drink then it most likely won’t be allowed, but then again there are exceptions to this too.

The Miller Light campaign is called Give It A Twist. The CTAs ask users to take a picture with an interesting twist and text the photo to the long-code 353833333224 for the weekly chance to win money and a trip to NYC. Conceptually we’ve done programs like this in the States, but instead of asking users to send the picture to a phone number the picture is typically sent to an email address. Yes, it would be much easier to have the picture sent via MMS to a short code, but the only Carriers in the U.S. that support a MMS to short code campaign are AT&T and Verizon. Sprint will allow MMS to short code but only if the brand will charge the end user to participate, thus a premium program only. Alltel, Cin Bell and Cricket are ‘maybes’.

Just as we’ve been hearing for the past 3 years, ‘experts’ are saying that this upcoming year is the year for mobile; we’ll see if the Carriers are listening because brands, agencies and creative kats are ready to start using the ubiquitous mobile device in conjunction with traditional marketing more frequently. However, it’s hard when programs such as FTEU, MMS to short codes, downloadable content, and even standard rate alerts services are not cross-carrier! (Yup, even standard rate alerts are not cross-carrier, ask Cricket for starters.)

The FCC announced its Wireless Innovation and Investment Notice of Inquiry (NOI) late August, catching mobile agencies in a spindle of perplexity and enthusiasm.

Stating that their intent is to merely gather facts about the wireless industry, the FCC will be focusing on research, innovation, and consumer protection (truth-in-billing). In other words, they will be looking [...]]]>

The FCC announced its Wireless Innovation and Investment Notice of Inquiry (NOI) late August, catching mobile agencies in a spindle of perplexity and enthusiasm.

Stating that their intent is to merely gather facts about the wireless industry, the FCC will be focusing on research, innovation, and consumer protection (truth-in-billing). In other words, they will be looking at things such as mobile applications, policies, pricing information, consumer privacy, market competition, third party products and services and even what user phone bills look like. Conclusively the FCC wants to figure out their role in our evolving mobile ecosystem while also making sure that the mobile world is utilizing all current innovations and pushing for new state of the art technology.

Their interest in developing a framework for analyzing and measuring innovation in the mobile industry, however, seems farfetched, seeing as mobile is one of the most innovative classes of business. With a touch of a handset, anyone can go anywhere with his or her mobile GPS, surf the web with countless pages as options and update in real-time, receive alerts regarding weather, sports, health and much more. Consumer demands of mobile content and applications drive the mobile industry to new heights; and in return, the delivery of such content and applications satisfy consumer needs, creating a circle of daily deliverance of creativity and modern technology; which has successfully survived the economic downturn, all while regulating itself. So why would the FCC need to regulate mobile research and innovation?

Their interest in consumer protection and overall market competition, in my opinion, are the only valid claims they have in regards as to why they are stepping in, seeing as consumer privacy and protection is always, and should always be, a major focus amongst a plethora of markets. However, with Carriers, the MMA and the CTIA updating constantly in order to assure proper engagement of users, their privacy, and exposure to content, what more can the FCC do that the mobile world is not already trying to achieve and/or already regulating? In fact, the MMA is generating a response to the FCC and its inquiries; a response all marketing agencies should support.

Although we know that government-run operations have not had the best history, some mobile agencies are seeing this as an opportunity to raise issues that are usually down played when viewing mobile marketing as a whole, such as distress when it comes to Carriers and provisioning short codes. Moreover, as the FCC is enabling all mobile companies and agencies to submit their opinions, comments, and thoughts on any topic regarding their upcoming overview. Whether or not the mobile world likes what the FCC is going to do and might do in the future, this is a great opportunity for the mobile world to voice its concerns, backup our success with data, and successfully display whether or not the FCC needs to step in.