Came across this sign the other day and thought I would share it all with you. I think I am going to make this a regular part of MOpocket so that whenever I stumble upon a mobile campaign when out and about I will report on it for your case study collecting!

So the other day when grabbing a quick lunch down at Lafayette and Spring Street (NYC) I crossed the street to take a look at an interesting looking bar and saw this mobile campaign add for Killington Ski Resort up in the State of Vermont (the place where I learned to Ski by the way).

According to the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) Killington and Fulgent Media Group joined forces with g8wave, in an effort to reach out to skiers using their mobile phones and text messaging. Killington was looking for new channels to market to their existing audience as well as find effective, measurable ways to establish a dialogue with potential customers.

Anyways, the commuter placed add asks you to text “Kski” to the Short Code 22122 to “receive unique offers and discounts the whole year long”.

According the MMA case study those that sign up (by sending “kski” or “kride” to 22122) will receive instant offers as well as other exclusive opportunities throughout the ski season. Such as equipment demos, discounted skiing, lodging, rentals, gear and apparel, invitations to special events, and more.

I did so. I got back a dated promotion

New Killington Mobile Offer! $49 Sunday thru Friday lift ticket! Valid thru 3/3/06! Book today at www.killington.com/mobile

Oh well. missed that one. Interesting enough when you visit the website on a PC in brings you to www.killington.com/nyc. Nevertheless, following the link on your mobile brings you to a mobile friendly page that looks like a scratch off ticket. Each scratch off part of a ticket is a link to part of the Killington’s main website (which is not rendered for mobile) where you can place orders etc etc.

This is an example of bad mobile marketing. No one is going to make reservations or buy lift tickets on a mobile web browser trying to render a regular web page. And very few people are going to visit the scratch of ticket on their phone and then, after realizing that the mobile component ends there, go to a PC later and get the rates, deal etc.

The thing that works best with mobile marketing is when the entire process involves the mobile medium. What would this mean for Killington? Well, how about Ski conditions via SMS that also send you a special discount code when weather conditions are favorable or, in the future, being able to buy lift ticket via SMS or have the lift ticket sent to your phone via MMS. Or how about SMS alerts about long or short ski lines while on the slopes so one can plan the best routes to the shortest lines. Another idea, if you wanna stick to the promotion thing, is offering food promotions to Skiers while they are on the slopes like a two hot chocolates for the price of one deal Or how about using the idle time people have on chair-lifts to do something clever with SMS. Those last examples work because they take advantage of location based service marketing ideas.

Mobile marketing is most successful when it involves things that people use a mobile phone for (duh) and when its quick, light weight, ubiquitous and informational.

The fact that Killington has not updated their Mobile promotions in over two months probably means that they are one one of those companies that had “mobile” written down on a “marketing concept” list and the approached a company on what to do about it.

This campaign claims to capitalize on mobile marketing’s greatest attributes, allowing interested consumers to act on impulse and receive instant, timely information sent directly to their most personal device, their mobile phone. The problem is, all it tells you about are deals which then must be accessed via a PC (which is ok, for one aspect of a mobile campaign, but not for the whole). They also claim that registered “Killington Mobile” members will receive relevant, compelling information from the mountain all winter, establishing a new channel through which Killington can communicate with both their loyal skiers as well as more casual skiers looking for value from the mountain they choose. Since I was not part of the program during the season I cannot comment on it but it seems like most of the communication was promotional in material and did not require further mobile interactions in the long run.

In short, what I am trying to say is that using the mobile medium as another means to create a pull to push marketing campaign is not where it is at. People don’t SMS to get promotions. They SMS to interact and get information they need in a quick and efficient way (at least here in the States). If promotions come with that then all the better but they should not be the main crux of a mobile campaign.

Also Killington should clarify what they mean by “all year round” is it the ski season” or really all year round?

Technorati Tags: ads, advertising , killington, kski, new york city, SMS

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 2nd, 2006 at 3:56 pm and is filed under Mobile Marketing, Mobile Stumble, SMS/TXT/MMS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.