PÚCA NEWS

Mobile marketing is Lyons' cup of tea

Mobile marketing is often associated with brands aimed at a young, tech-savvy audience but a recent sales promotion by Ireland’s best-selling tea brand, Lyons, demonstrated that mobile also has a valuable role to play in mature markets with an older consumer profile.

In October 2005, Lyons launched a new premium tea, Gold Blend Reserve, on the Irish market. In the summer of 2006, as part of the second wave of marketing activity behind the launch, it undertook a large-scale sampling campaign. Some 250,000 sample boxes (four tea bags per sample) of Lyons Gold Blend Reserve were handed out at traffic lights, Dart stations, Luas stops, shopping centres and offices over a two-week period in August 2006. A further 50,000 were distributed from the roving jeeps belonging to local radio stations. As an added incentive to sample the product, the campaign incorporated a Text-to-Win element, which was created by Puca Technologies. Here, members of the public were required to text ‘reserve’ followed by their name to 51500 (at standard messaging rates) to enter into a draw for a trip for two to San Francisco.

"We felt that mobile would have a positive role to play because it was so instant and we would be able to get rapid feedback on how the promotion had gone," explained Keith Farrell, marketing manager Lyons Tea.

The campaign proved to be very successful, generating 12,500 responses and helping Gold Blend Reserve achieve its highest monthly sales in September, cementing Lyons position as the leading tea brand on the market.

Said Farrell: "I found mobile marketing very good value for money compared to doing something like a direct marketing or couponing campaign. Especially given the fact that we were able to get face-to-face with our consumers and get a sample into their hands it was very good value for money," said Farrell.

He added: "Bearing in mind that participants were not guaranteed to win a prize, we were very happy with the response rate. Also, given the generally older age profile of our customers, it also proved to me that text campaigns do work among older audiences. If I’m doing specific sampling events again, Text-to-Win would certainly appeal to me; I think mobile’s an excellent way to go."

Want to find out more? Just email sales@puca.com