Message Received

Mobile communications is the fastest and most efficient way for organisations and brands to interact with their customers. Dublin-based Púca has been at the forefront of the mobile revolution, helping businesses to use emerging technologies to create new, useful and rewarding ways of engaging with their customers and staff.

Founded in 2000, Púca is a mobile marketing and messaging solutions specialist, helping brands build and deliver successful mobile and digital engagement strategies.

With a team of 14 staff operating out of the organisation’s Dublin office, Púca’s offering spans mobile messaging; app development (for iOS and Android), and integrated digital campaigns and promotions across web, mobile and social media.

Eileen Carroll, Managing Director at Púca, describes the company as “a facilitator of mobile communication”, providing the technology and services for customer engagement with a particular focus on interactive messaging services. Carroll joined Púca in late 2001 and has been with the company ever since, helping steer its development into one of Ireland’s leading mobile solutions specialists for business and brands.

Having recently been appointed Púca’s Managing Director, the last 12 months have been an exciting time for both Carroll and the organisation as a whole.

“We’ve had great success across all of the sectors we operate in, both on the apps and the messaging side of our business, especially with financial services, insurance and utilities companies where the consumer trends are all towards mobile-based and messaging-based communication,” Carroll says.

Mobile Solutions

With over two decades of experience, Púca has helped organisations from every sector make mobile apps and messaging an integral part of their business processes. Púca’s clients are as varied as their needs with customers using Púca’s messaging services for a range of business functions from marketing to customer care, credit control and operations.

Púca has helped develop well-known, award-winning mobile apps including the MyCornmarket app (a customer policy information app), My3 (the mobile operator’s dedicated customer app) as well as the Arnotts Wonder app (the mobile app for the Arnotts Department Store Wonder Card loyalty programme). The Púca developed TravelWise app (delivered by Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) has been a particularly useful tool for Irish citizens during natural disasters and emergencies abroad. The app provides Irish citizens with important information about travelling abroad including key emergency location and contact details. The goal of the app is to enhance Irish safety and support while abroad.

Evolving to meet expectations

The mobile marketing and communications industry has seen a lot of changes since 2000, with competition in the sector increasing. Eileen comments;

“Back in 2001 when I started we were one of a very small handful of companies doing interactive mobile marketing for a limited number of consumer brands. Now you’d be hard pressed to find a sector that’s not using messaging across most departments”. 

The mobile engagement specialist’s customer-centric approach helps it to stand out from competition, according to Carroll:

“We focus our software roadmap on what our existing customers want. Customers value that we are improving the product to meet their expectations.”

One of the biggest challenges for Púca is “staying focused on our core business and not getting sidetracked into tempting but non-strategic projects,” Carroll explains. “We haven’t always succeeded, but now we’re much better at saying no.”

Multichannel Engagement

As the mobile industry continues to adapt to new technologies and innovations, Carroll says things have gone full circle in recent years with customers and brands alike now seeking a more well-rounded, multi-channel experience.

“I think we’re witnessing a convergence between apps and messaging. In a way we’ve gone full circle from SMS messaging to apps and back again to a more multimedia experience with web chat, iMessage and RCS [rich communication services]. Another big driver of developments in the messaging space right now is the area of identity and fraud prevention” 

Self-service Solutions

Púca’s multichannel approach helps businesses achieve compelling and effective customer engagement, integrated across mobile, desktop and social media. Looking ahead to the future, Púca hopes to take its mobile messaging platform, Impower, international.

“We’ve recently launched a major new upgrade of Impower, which we’ve been rolling out with selected clients over the past few months. It’s been getting great feedback so far and we’ll be launching lots more innovative new features on Impower over the coming months to help our clients communicate and transact with their customers through various messaging channels,” Carroll explains.

“It’s a product that has huge potential internationally and that’s something that’s in the planning stages at the moment – watch this space!” she adds.

Source: This article was the Media & Marketing feature in the Autumn issue of InBUSINESS magazine – the Chambers Ireland quarterly publication. The article also included an abridged version of this post: 7-Point Mobile Strategy Health Check.