The permission-based campaign created by Ogilvy Interactive, asks mobile users to select one member of the four-person band for an SMS dialogue.
Subscribers also receive virtual freebies, such as picture messages and vouchers, and are encouraged to recruit other fans through SMS. Ogilvy Interactive regional creative director, Graham Kelly, says this is the first time the record company has used SMS to talk to the youth segment.
"It's really exciting to follow the hundreds of different dialogues that are going on between subscribers and the band. We have people having conversations of more than 20 messages long. One guy was even flirting with (band member) Noodle. In fact, over 50 per cent of subscribers are having some form of conversation.
"Encouraging stuff, as it shows the campaign is delivering on one of our key objectives, seeing whether SMS can deepen the relationship our target audience has with the band."
Ogilvy Interactive was also behind the opt-in God campaign, which used humour to touch on religion. That campaign achieved a subscription rate of more than 25 per cent and 15,000 subscribers. "One key learning from this campaign was the desire for dialogue. Every time a message went out, over 10 per cent of subscribers replied to it with questions, comments or observations. This indicated that SMS could be a powerful new way to start, sustain and strengthen relationships,
says Kelly.
Valerie Lim, managing director of EMI Singapore, says SMS was used because "we didn't want the band to lose its coolness by using traditional advertising, and turning off their fans".
Indeed, for the growing number of marketers wanting to target the fickle youth market, SMS is virtually an open door to the mobile-owning 15 to 24-year-old demographic. According to a report by Pyramid Research, mobile subscribers in Asia continue to grow. India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam all added more subscribers in 2001 than in 1998 and 1999 combined. In fact, Asia added more new subscribers last year than Europe and the US combined, according to the report.
Kelly adds that in December alone, 40 billion SMSs were sent, surpassing email. That mobile users are forecast to send some 62 billion SMSs by year-end and an estimated 200 billion text-messages worldwide by the end of this year bodes well for the channel.
Edsel Tolentino, group creative director at Hemisphere Leo Burnett, Philippines, says SMS is a consumer-driven medium that the youth market discovered itself. "To say that SMS is popular in the Philippines is an understatement; it's a way of life here,
says Tolentino. "But I would say that many agencies and clients still have not really explored the medium. It works very well for promotions, particularly those that require feedback and interaction. But with the few lines you have to play with, you must be creative, so humour can work well."
What makes SMS campaigns so successful is the personal touch. It's a medium that not only allows companies to speak directly to the consumer, but allows the consumer to take the dialogue further. But a mobile phone is also a channel which people feel extremely protective over. As such, it offers limitless opportunities, but marketers should never forget that it carries an equivalent risk.
