The movie studio Lionsgate is implementing a variety of mobile marketing techniques to promote its new movie For Colored Girls–showing an understanding of how to best reach consumers on their phones.
Using Augme Technologies’ interactive media marketing platform, the marketing strategy utilizes both QR barcodes and a text-messaging campaign. The barcodes will be printed on For Colored Girls movie posters and can be scanned by any smart phone, directing consumers to a full mobile site and other images and information related to the film. As for the text-messaging campaign, any cell phone with SMS capability and Internet access can be used to send the keyword COLORS to the short code 30333, in order to receive links to the mobile site.
In a world (key that movie voiceover actor) where marketers get excited about appearing hip with their iPhone and Android apps, the truth is that high-end smart phones make up a fairly exclusive group of consumers. With something like a theatrical release, a movie studio needs to reach more than the technophile or the deep-pocketed consumer. Utilizing SMS means that a greater number of cell phone owners can participate in the interactive campaign.
The website mobilization company dotMobi recently pointed out the advantage of having mobile-optimized Internet content, rather than apps for specific devices. And a majority of consumers, while swayed by “you can be cool too” ads for smart phones, don’t really know if they’d use all those smart features. The Lionsgate campaign makes these facts work for its For Colored Girls campaign.
