BMW is one company that seems to be truly serious about its mobile marketing efforts. So serious, in fact, that the company actually has what they call their own “Mobile Marketing Circle,” which is an internal group effort to explore and deploy any and all mobile marketing technology available.
The company has always tested the latest mobile campaigns as they’re developed. From QR codes for the new 1-series launch, to image recognition linked to print campaigns, they’ve tested just about everything that’s been developed over the past few years.
Interestingly enough, after a variety of testing, BMW found that nothing beats the effectiveness of simple SMS/MMS-based mobile marketing. In a recent German campaign to help the auto-maker push new snow tires, the company used MMS solely to engage prospective customers.
BMW sent an MMS to customers in its database with a photo of how their model of car would look with the recommended snow tires. Customers also had the option to see how other tires would appear on their cars by clicking on a downloadable application. In addition, users were given the option of calling their nearest dealer directly, or requesting a call back. The campaign garnered a 30% conversion rate overall, and was one of BMW more successful campaigns.
This proves once again how the use of simple MMS messages beats almost any other type of mobile marketing. Not to say the other methods are un-effective, but I think niche campaigns such as QR codes are better suited for niche companies and techniques, while MMS remains a ubiquitous solution across most industries.
