Catalyst worked with Warner Bros. and Tyson to develop a spectacular summer promotion timed to coincide with the theatrical release of the Warner bros. film Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore. The family-oriented promotion includes savings on Tyson® Chicken Tenders, and an online sweepstakes with thousands of prizes. The promotion will be featured in more than 7,000 stores nationwide.

Catalyst designed everything for the promotion including the microsite, in-store merchandising, email campaign, sales materials, and trade relations materials. We also facilitate the partnership between Tyson and co-promotion partners such as Warner Bros.

Try your luck today by registering at the site! And remember, Catalyst is a superb source for unique and effective promotions like this!

© 2010 Tyson Foods, Inc. Tyson is a registered trademark of Tyson Foods, Inc.
© 2010 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved

I gave a presentation today about trends in advertising to SCORE Fort Wayne. SCORE is a wonderful not-for-profit organization of volunteer executives that provide much-needed counseling to potential and existing small business owners. Had a great time!

Most of my presentation revolved around the potential of mobile advertising. I’ve given similar presentations before and I am still surprised by the excited reactions I get. It all comes down to the numbers and they are just too powerful to ignore.

If you aren’t considering mobile in your plans, you are missing out. Check out the FAQs:

• More people have Internet access via mobile phone than PC
• Mobile Internet – growth of 25% per year
• 40 – 45 million mobile users use mobile Internet – age 25 – 44
• 37% of adults say they are open to mobile ads & incentives
• Of those currently receiving text advertising, 45% have responded to it
• Text campaigns achieve 15% to 30% response rate.
• In comparison, email is 5% and snail mail is 2.61%.

Wow – pretty impressive stuff! It’s not just about response rates and growth, albeit impressive, look at the age range. We’re not talking about just a bunch of teenagers here.

Now the key is to find a way to start implementing mobile technology into your marketing efforts. If you need any help, just shoot me an e-mail or give me a call @ (260) 422-4888. Better yet, comment right here on my post. Would love to chat!

Sources – dreamsuccessmanagement.com – 2009, mobilecommercedaily.com – 2009, gpsbusiness news.com – 2010, neustar™ ROI of Common Short Code and SMS Mobile Marketing, Nov. 2009

Whether you are B2C or B2B, there is a great new technology available that you should be taking a look at: QR Codes. A QR code is a matrix code (or 2-dimensional bar code) that allows its contents to be decoded quickly. You match this code with the power of a mobile application and you have a very unique and effective way to engage your target audience. We’re not just talking impressions here, we truly mean engage and interact.

So here’s how it works.

First, download a QR reader on your smart phone. iPhone users can use QR app, Blackberry addicts can use ScanLife. Or you can just search QR readers/scanners and any application that pops up should work just fine. Next, go ahead and try it. Open the app and scan the QR graphic in this post. Yep, scan it right from your computer screen. Seriously – go ahead and do it now.

Cool, isn’t it?

In this case you have downloaded my contact info and can add it to your contacts with the tap of a button. You can also drive people to websites, videos, and mobile coupons. At your next trade show, you can have attendees download brochures on the spot. No more downtime in between show and follow-up. Place it in a TV spot, print ad, brochure – it all works. The options are limitless!

When we have presented this technology, everyone always agrees that it is impressive. However, there have been a few comments from some clients about their industry or their consumers not being ready or being slow to accept this technology. We don’t buy it.

First, there are case studies from around the world that prove otherwise. Second, we live in a world of instant gratification where everyone walks around with a cell phone attached at the hip. One in-home study even found that when TV viewers were given the choice of accessing info with their home computer or through QR code – the phone with the QR reader won out. That is pretty powerful stuff!

So the moral of this story is don’t wait to get up to speed on new technology, don’t let it intimidate you. If you want, give me a shout and we can walk you through the world of QR codes and how they can help your company market more effectively. I think you’ll enjoy it (we are a fun group) and I am willing to bet you will be ready to make the jump!

Mobile Stats You Need to Know:

• 270M or 87% of US HH are mobile subscribers
• 110.4 billion text messages are sent each month
• Average age of text messager is 38 (no, this is not a typo)
• 89% of cell phones in ’09 had cameras
• By 2011, there will be more smart phones than feature phones

Sources – dreamsuccessmanagement.com – 2009, mobilecommercedaily.com – 2009, gpsbusiness news.com – 2010, neustar™ ROI of Common Short Code and SMS Mobile Marketing, Nov. 2009