Using WAP to promote branding

"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," says Sean Holmes, marketing manager for Billabong SA.

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

According to Holmes, the use of mobile technology for marketing was a new area for Billabong SA to explore. He feels that the WAP campaign ensured Billabong's niche branding promoting the surfing lifestyle remained differentiated from mainstream brand campaigns. He also sees 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 placed in the hands of a targeted consumer.

Explains Holmes, "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.

"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."

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.