Belle Tire, the nation’s eighth largest tire retailer with 84 stores in Michigan and Ohio, reports it has experienced a sales lift and seen an opt-in rate to its loyalty club of 77 percent in an integrated and sustained mobile marketing program with mobile marketing and advertising leader Hipcricket.
Established in 1922, Belle Tire tried mobile marketing for the first time in 2009 when the retailer decided to add a mobile component to its traditional media buys and marketing with local sports teams - the Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Pistons and Michigan State Spartans.
Belle Tire first offered a free set of tires in a text-to-win promotion where consumers texted in the word TIRE to Belle Tire’s short code. All who entered received a $20 off mobile coupon. Participants were then invited to join the Belle Tire “Advantage Club” – and 55 percent opted into the club.
In a follow-up campaign, 77 percentof participants subsequently joined the mobile “Advantage Club.” Belle Tire and Hipcricket conducted multi-variant analysis to determine which ad executions and channels were most effective and produced the best ROI, according to the companies.
“We are extremely pleased with the results we’ve achieved to date using Hipcricket to integrate mobile marketing into our existing advertising campaigns,” says Don Barnes, marketing manager at Belle Tire. “By adding a mobile element, we were able to track which ads were the most successful, which helps us to better plan our budgets for future campaigns. In addition, we’ve gained a database of customers who we’re now able to communicate with on an ongoing basis – this hyper local mobile engagement is very valuable. We like to reward our loyal customers, and mobile has been a great venue to help us do it – more so than email and other types of campaigns we’ve tried.”
Moving forward, Belle Tire has plans to use Hipcricket to better the overall customer experience through mobile customer surveys and service reminders. Also, the company plans to run campaigns to reward “Super Fans” of Belle Tire with tickets to sporting events and other offers.
“According to the Yankee Group, 73 percent of consumers want mobile coupons,” says Eric Harber, president and COO at Hipcricket. “Belle Tire is strategically starting with mobile coupons, then building its database to reward loyal customers. We’re pleased to be their partner on these important integrated marketing initiatives.”
Hipcricket has conducted more than 50,000 mobile marketing campaigns for some of the world’s biggest brands — including Rite Aid, HBO, Coca Cola and Staples—as well as hundreds of radio and television stations nationwide. Hipcricket equips clients with technology and services that enable them to create mobile advertising and promotional campaigns in minutes. Hipcricket states that its platform includes powerful analytics tools that enable brands to comprehensively monitor campaigns, measure and analyze results and make campaign changes in real time for the best possible results.
For more information, visit www.hipcricket.com.
