WAP campaign successfully promotes surfing lifestyle

BulkSMS.com, a leading wireless application service provider offering messaging and mobile content solutions, successfully enabled Billabong SA to promote its brand with a WAP campaign. The below-the-line marketing campaign offered targeted consumers with branded wallpapers downloaded to a mobile phone.

"BulkSMS.com provided Billabong SA with a solution that used our WAP content platform. The WAP campaign enabled Billabong SA to get their brands onto cellphones within their target market," said Dr Pieter Streicher, managing director of Celerity Systems.

The WAP campaign ran over the 2005/6 summer season and generated several thousand wallpaper downloads.

"The WAP campaign was well received. We recognise that the youth have tapped into the mobile phone market and saw the opportunity with this campaign to provide them with inspiring surfing lifestyle images and labels," said Sean Holmes, marketing manager for Billabong SA.

Wallpapers are static images designed for mobile phones and accessed via WAP technology. WAP - the wireless application protocol used to access the Internet - is a popular technology used to deliver mobile content directly to a consumer`s handset. Besides wallpapers, mobile content includes animated screensavers, live updates, polyphonic ringtones and videoclips. Mobile content is paid for by the consumer via premium rate SMS services, thereby providing a return on the investment for the content developed for a WAP marketing campaign.

According to Holmes, the use of mobile technology for marketing was a new area for Billabong SA to explore. He felt the WAP campaign ensured Billabong`s niche branding promoting the surfing lifestyle remained differentiated from mainstream brand campaigns. He also saw it as providing a platform for targeted consumers to interact with the Billabong brand.

The WAP campaign was launched via a Billabong advert in a publication targeting the girl surfer market. Readers viewed several Billabong wallpapers and then used their mobile phones to send a SMS with a keyword to a shortcode to request a wallpaper. They received a reply SMS with a link to the WAP content platform to access the branded image or logo which was delivered to their mobile phone. The net result was a Billabong brand was placed in the hands of a targeted consumer.

"This was a niche added-value service that gave consumers something more than just looking at our products in media. They were able to access logos and images as part of the Billabong brand experience," said Holmes.

The aims of the WAP campaign were achieved. Billabong SA was able to create brand awareness among targeted consumers with the wallpaper. The use of technology ensured the campaign was dynamic, allowing Billabong to track responses to its advertising campaign in the print media.

"The mobile phone is not only a pervasive communications medium; it is also an important personal accessory that tells others a lot about who we are and the lifestyle we live. By providing consumers with branded image and logos via WAP, the Billabong marketing team were able to further their brand value by delivering branded items to a consumer`s handset," said Streicher.