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Steve Siegel is currently the vice president of brand solutions at HipCricket, a pioneering mobile marketing company that creates measurable, real-time, one-to-one relationships between advertisers and their customers and prospects. Over his career, Siegel has developed successful mobile marketing programs for operators, media companies, marketers and agencies, including Dunkin Donuts, The History Channel, McDonalds, Snapple, Verizon Wireless, Viacom, Mediacom and Ogilvy. In each instance he played an integral role in helping to drive significant gains in new market revenue.

Before joining HipCricket, Siegel served as the vice president of mobile marketing & solutions at Enpocket (now Nokia Ad Solutions). Prior to this engagement he held senior sales and management positions at Responsys (an email service provider), Engage Media, and Mediacom/Beyond Interactive. Siegel began his advertising career at Backer Spielvogel Bates (now Zenithmedia) managing television/radio media and promotions for clients such as Miller Brewing Co, Wendys, and Hyundai Motors.

Siegel holds a BA from University of Michigan- Ann Arbor and currently lives in New Jersey with his wife and three sons.

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Mobile Drive To Web

Written on
August 11th 2008
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by Steven Siegel  |
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mobile_revolution_small.jpgADOTAS EXCLUSIVE — When it comes to advertising, mobile represents the new frontier—and everybody is heading west. Just search the phrase “mobile marketing” on Google and more than 2.7 million entries appear. This shouldn’t be a surprise when you take into account the fact that the mobile channel offers brands the opportunity to connect with consumers, one-on-one like never before. What might come as a surprise is the fact that mobile marketing goes far beyond just reaching the consumer. What you might not be aware of is its ability to serve as a measurement tool for the performance of the traditional media with which it is integrated.

Despite the rise of mobile and online, traditional advertising is still a very effective way to promote a brand.  Billboards still line the highways, direct mail still comes to your home each day, product packaging continues to evolve and, like it or not, TV commercials still bombard us between each and every segment (unless you are a DVR adoptee, of course). The one area where many of these mediums fall short is measurement.

Just think about it. How does a marketer really know if a billboard on I-90 is catching the consumer’s eye or if the direct mail campaign is what sparked a person to try a new product? Even in the digital age, a time when all marketers are looking to A) drive traffic to their Web site and B) spark an action (i.e. a purchase) a company generally has little insight into how a visitor was drawn to their brand. Maybe it was the radio spot or perhaps the new in-store signage. These forms of advertising are effective but lack an interactive component capable of delivering this type of insight. Add mobile to the equation and it’s a whole different story.

For example, an Out Of Home ad on college campuses includes a mobile call to action requesting that the consumer text a specific keyword to a common short code (a five or six digit number that works on all national carriers). The consumer then receives a text message with an offer they can take to a physical store.  Or perhaps it contains a link to a mobile web site where they can get more information or take it a step further and request the consumer’s email address to send them an email to read when they are back online. Simultaneously, a radio spot does the same but with a different keyword.  Now when the consumer acts, and there is plenty of evidence that they will, marketers are able to see which media is generating better results and then adjust the campaign as needed. This model provides similar feedback marketers get from the web, and it delivers insights that previously were not possible with traditional media.

And name brands are taking notice. Earlier this year Jameson put in place a campaign designed to send unique Irish toasts via text message to consumers who had opted-in to the “Jameson Full-On Irish” Sweepstakes. The toasts were sent daily from February 17 to March 17, and then hourly throughout March 16 and 17. The campaign specifically featured on-premise marketing materials (in bars, restaurants, etc…) which requested that consumers text in the word “Jameson” to 80782 while the brand’s off-premise (on package) materials prompted consumers to text in the word “Irish” to 80782. While the campaign generated thousands of text messaging, what Jameson found interesting was that more than three quarters of the responses came from on-premise or from ads in restaurants and bars. This insight gave the Jameson team the opportunity to alter future campaigns to further drive the on-premise groups while also looking into new methods to grab the attention of those store based consumers.



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