Sprint: Leveraging Email Communication for A Successful Campaign

Hi everyone,

Getting back from the Fun Dial Marketing Seminar provides so many new topics to share with you :)

Today, I will review a very interesting and effective marketing campaign that basically don’t cost operators so much as above the line marketing activities (like mass advertising). The American mobile operator Sprint was facing a situation by which it had low ringback tones content downloads by existing subscribers, low awareness of people to the service and limited marketing budget.

Accordingly, the campaign’s objectives were
• To increase ringback tones downloads
• To increase number of ringback tones service users
• To increase awareness to ringback tones service

Sprint sent an email to a targeted group of 500K subscribers which constitute the ‘power users’\ heavy content services users. The reason for targeting only a certain group (and not the entire install base) was to intention to reach a critical mass of users - including “opinion leaders” – in a short period of time and leverage the viral nature of the ringback tone service. Having a core of users is what is needed to create a buzz.

This group of heavy users was offered James Blunts’ famous “You’re Beautiful” ringback tone (Call Tone) for free. The rational was to choose a famous musical track which is known to most people and “fit” wide range of ages and cultures. The drive to action was a click on link - “Try it - click on the “Download” link below” relying on impulsive buying behavior [see the image of the email]:

This simple button automatically activated the ringback tones service for those users.

The impulsive drive to action didn’t fail Sprint. In a matter of days it got an 8% of conversion rate out of the targeted recipients\population; meaning, Sprint pin pointed the “right people”. Also, Sprint witnessed an over 30% growth in weekly downloads.

In conclusion, choosing the right content and targeting to the right segment are key success factors. Also, with minor marketing investments substantial revenue can be generated.

Comments

[scott manthey]

Thats a move in the right direction. Now the carriers need to start pushing non branded viral material like our dont call again files (one on ATT Answertones). A song is only good for so long. I think that people are looking for either something nostalgic - hence theme songs selling so well - or funny. Music does so well b/c its the only thing that constantly markets itself to most markets and demos. anyways thats my two cents.

[koura]

belle gentil