Unilever to Offer Mobile Coupons to its Customers

In an attempt to test the waters in the field of mobile phone marketing, Unilever has announced that it will offer mobile coupons to its customers. This is a trial run and will go on for four weeks.

The company has stated that the trial run will start this Sunday and will go on for another four weeks. It will be conducted at a ShopRite store in Hillsborough, New Jersey. The company plans to give discount coupons for some of its most famous brands like Dove soap, Lipton tea, Breyers ice cream, and Hellmann’s mayonnaise.

To get these discount coupons, you need to check out the website samplesaint.com and download the coupons to your mobile phone. To redeem these coupons, you can give your phone to the cashier at the store. He will scan the barcode on your phone’s screen, redeem the coupon, and delete the coupon from your phone. To make use of this offer, you need to have an internet enabled phone. This technology has been developed by a Chicago based mobile technology company named Samplesaint.

Marc Shaw of Unilever said that mobile marketing is the Holy Grail that everyone has been trying to figure out. He also said that it is important for businesses to find out what catches the attention of their customers exactly.

Regular readers of this blog know what I feel about mobile coupons. So, this does not come as a surprise to me at all. In fact, if anything, I would say that Unilever is a little late in entering the mobile phone marketing field. But, as they say, better late than never. Depending on the result of this test run, the company might decide to take mobile phone marketing seriously. So, I’ll keep an eye on this test run and keep you guys posted. Watch this space for more details.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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AT&T to support QR code based advertising

I’ve talked about the impact QR codes can have on mobile advertising already in this blog. Now, it seems Americans will have an opportunity to try it out. AT&T recently decided to support one such technology developed by Mobot, a Massachusetts based company.

With this technology, you can use your mobile phone camera to scan a barcode, logo, or picture and get something cool in return. It might be a discount coupon, some cool stuff to download, or a gift voucher. It is also said that depending on the response that AT&T gets, Verizon and T-Mobile might also follow suit.

Google is also very excited about this technology as it might help Google set its foot in print advertising. Google plans to place print ads with barcodes that can be scanned by mobile phone cameras. Google analytics tools will take note of things like how many people scanned the ad and what type of ads got noticed so that you, as a mobile advertiser, can get an idea of how well your ad campaign has performed.

I think this could be a terrific idea if executed well. As a mobile user, I’d always find it easier to scan an ad with my mobile camera and get the info I want as opposed to responding to a text message. What do you guys say?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Sprint users - Claim your free gift right now

If you are a Sprint user, make sure you read this to get some freebies from Sprint. Did you see the colorful, full page ad in the Jan ’08 Wired magazine? The ad was very impressive with a tagline and all which read “The captivating future of the barcode.” Now, here’s what you can do with that.

If you happen to have a camera phone, just send a text message “scan” to 70734 and you can download a barcode reading application. Once you’ve downloaded it on to your mobile phone, use it to scan the barcode given in the Sprint ad in that magazine and take a snap to win some cool prizes from Sprint. One of my friends tried this out and got cool ringtones in return.

Are you wondering like “where on earth do I get a Wired magazine now?” Well; don’t worry. You can check out the barcode here and take a snap with your phone. Nah; you can thank me later for being so helpful.

Unfortunately, I’m not a Sprint user. So, if you guys happen to use Sprint phones, make sure you check this out and let me know what ya all got.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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