Vodka and Mobile Marketing

Grey Goose, the premium vodka company has extended its wingspan with a branding opportunity through their sponsorship of Golf Channel’s “19th Hole”, a television program in which golf fans can interact with experts and journalists “on the fly”, via real-time SMS text messages. Powered by Txtstation, the platform gives subscribers access to live polls, trivia questions, sweepstakes info, breaking news alerts, and daily updates on PGA/LPGA standings, scores, leaderboards etc., from anywhere they can find a bar (of service reception, that is).

A recent Forrester report forecasts that over 75% of marketers plan to integrate mobile within their marketing communications mix this year. So, the Golf Channel and Grey Goose are not the only ones in on the secret.

Technology is created to pamper—to serve people through making ease of life by improving the speed and efficiency of every day functions (so they say). High speed Internet, smartphones, 3G & 4G networks; the more it advances the more it is expected. We want our content easy, quick, and convenient—anytime, anywhere, and without having to stray from our comfort zone. Breakfast in bed, served on a platter. If they won’t come to you, then you go to them…via mobile.

Like or not, evolving media platforms—social media in particular—are reshaping the landscape of marketing communications. What used to be a one way stream (marketer – consumer), now flows both ways. As the power shifts hands, the lens is held to the masses, the faces in the crowd are brought to focus, and each individual consumer emerges with two things (1) an identity, and (2) a voice. And now it’s a whole new ballgame. Everyone wants to be seen and heard. Concerning a new marketing campaign, the 2011 consumer wants to know the following:

• What can this do for me?
• Where can I go to join the conversation?

If it’s nothing and nowhere, they have already lost interest.

With this whole new “identity” business, Apple was among the first to catch on: iPhone, Mobile Me, “I’m a Mac”. See a pattern? Microsoft are no dummies. Take a closer look at their most recent ad campaign: “Windows 7 was my idea.” Identity and voice.

Interestingly enough, consumers are not the only ones this trend has left thirsting for the spotlight. As new media platforms and technologies continue to pop-up like cases of A.D.D. (not to suggest a relationship, though an argument can be made), we walk a world—like a digital time square—that bombards us with advertising and marketing content from the time we open our eyes in the morning to the time we close them back up to sleep at night (I’m sure there’s someone out there right now working on a dream-ad platform). With so many players battling for attention, the fight to be seen and heard has reached as high a boiling point for marketers as it has for consumers. After all, it is now a two-way stream.

As for the Grey Goose Campaign, when the audience tunes-in to the Golf Channel to watch “The 19th Hole”, not only will they have more of a motivation to do-so, but also more of a motivation to remain tuned-in, attentive and engaged throughout the program. Why? Because they will want to see if they had the correct answer for the trivia question; if their vote was in the majority of the poll results; if their text message or entry in the photo contest might make it to the screen. It has to do with them. It’s about them—it’s all about them.

Agree?