Million Hungry Lions go mobile

"Hungry Lion is using this ongoing series of campaigns to raise awareness of its brand, encourage customers to visit stores and get consumers comfortable with the idea of using mobile coupons," says WiGroup CEO, Bevan Ducasse. "WiPlatform is integrated to the point of sale system, making it easy for the company to set up and manage a wide range of mobile campaigns across its stores nationwide.

Customers learn about the offers through a variety of media from tray inserts to staff T-shirts, radio and advertising on 'please call me' messages, MXit and mobile web sites. Mobile coupons were delivered via MXit, USSD, SMS or a mobi site, depending on the customer's preference.

"For one specific offer, over a million customers responded to the campaign and received mobile coupons and more than half the coupons got used, which is an unprecedented response. Typically, non-digital coupon campaigns have redemption rates well below 10%. Using customers' mobile phones to deliver coupons made it more convenient for them, and resulted in much higher engagement. We had over 20,000 customers using a mobile app to help them find the nearest store.

"Mobile as a channel has delivered a significant increase in awareness for the brand."

He says the key to success for mobile campaigns is that they should be easy for customers and till staff alike to manage.

"The client has over 160 stores throughout southern Africa, so this was only going to succeed if it didn't create extra work for sales staff or waste customers' time with complex transactions at the till. Using wiPlatform, which was already integrated at all points of sale, made the process of redeeming coupons quick, easy and satisfying for everyone. It also gave campaign managers real-time feedback on the campaign's progress.

"The results speak for themselves. The client has made very effective and innovative use of the opportunities offered by mobile couponing. Point of sale integration is the crucial piece of the puzzle: It made the campaigns a cost-effective way to promote the brand, bring more customers into stores and generate transactions," he concludes.