Enpocket gets Ford in gear for mobile marketing
Big auto is embracing mobile. Can you blame them? What better way to build brand affinity and capture the attention of prospective buyers than the mobile device? New multimedia capabilities make it easy for big brands to create rich experiences on the small screen.
Prospective auto buyers are inundated with advertisements for a variety of brands and models in print, on the television and on the Internet. So where does an automaker go to cut through the noise to reach a certain consumer group? And how can marketers encourage a longer, more interactive brand experience?
When Ford recently launched its new crossover vehicle, the Ford Edge, executives wanted to drum up interest in the vehicle and increase brand affinity for Ford. However, they wanted to use a medium that wouldn’t already be saturated with auto ads. Ford’s media planning agency, Mindshare – Team Detroit, reached out to Enpocket to launch a mobile advertising program.
Ford was hoping to reach 28- to 34-year-old men with their mobile program and wanted to integrate out-of-home and newspaper advertising programs with the mobile initiative. So Enpocket devised a mobile Web site that is being promoted in newspapers and billboards with a ‘short code’ text mechanic that allows consumers to text in for the link to the Ford site. Importantly, Ford is also using the mobile medium itself to promote the site by placing ad banners across the mobile Web.
Once mobile subscribers visit the Ford mobile site, they can learn about the Ford Edge, sign up for text alerts, download a variety of Ford Edge wallpapers, and click to play the Ford Edge video.
The program has resulted in a 2.5 percent click through rate on the mobile media, and Ford executives were surprised to find out that more people viewed the Edge video on mobile than on the Internet during the mobile campaign period. As a result of the success of the program, the company plans to expand its mobile marketing globally and increase their mobile web presence include other Ford models.
The Ford mobile site can be viewed by entering the URL (http://ford.enpocket.com) into a mobile browser.