Just text "Bang": SMS campaign for fireworks company explodes

Text "BANG" was added to the legacy billboards.

Summary:  Fireworks Supermarket  offered $5 off to customers who text-messaged key words like "bang."  The campaign generated 1500 messages - and almost as many customers - in two months. The campaign was created by a newspaper company and supported by the client's existing  highway billboards.

Company: Jones Media, Inc.
Website: Jonesmedia.biz
Market:  Tennessee
Executive: Brett Hulsey, Head of Interactive

Challenge: Fireworks Supermarket, a national fireworks company with several locations in the Smokey Mountain-area of Tennesee, needed to drive summer foot traffic and sales. In 2009 they approached Jones Media, which did not a have newspapers in the communities where the stores were located, but did have tourism publications including the Smokey Mountain Lodging Guide, and the Official Insterstate Guide distributed at highway rest-stops from Florida to Virginia. The company also had a mobile SMS division,  MAGI7, which supported tourist-oriented campaigns.

Strategy: The media group worked with the advertiser to create an SMS based campaign, using  a simple offer of  $5 off a minimum $25 purchase, and different key words for each of the store locations, such as "Bang" and "Boom".

The advertiser added banners with the key word,  for example "Text BANG to 62447", to existing high way billboards, and also ran ads in the tourist magazines. The key word was changed depending on the location of the store to make the campaigns trackable by locations.  One key word was "Free" for a gift from the store.

Results: Jones Media knew they had a winner as soon as the campaign went live and a cashier in their Sevierville store had already counted several dozen mobile coupon redemptions before noon. The campaign wound up generating 1500 text messages and resulting in about 1000 sales between July and August.  The advertiser renewed, and still gets about about 150 messages a week but now spends $1,800 per year for each of its 13 locations for the SMS service in addiiton to print.

Keys to success: Brett Hulsey, head of interactive says that traditional media promotions of  the SMS campaign, especially the customers own bill boards, and a strong offer were the keys to success of the campaign. Also important was an early investment that Jones Media made in purchasing a short code and investing in fullfillment technology. 

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