• by Tameka Kee , January 3, 2008

Travelers on holiday at the Mt. Bachelor ski resort may receive a new kind of mobile message during their next stay--a coupon or discount offer complete with a scannable barcode. Through a new deal with RocketBux, the Bend, Ore.-based resort will be able to beam skiers scannable mobile coupons, in addition to the daily snow condition text messages they already send.

RocketBux embeds a link in each promotional text message, and users with Web-enabled mobile phones can click on the link to open the coupon page. Currently, Mt. Bachelor is using the opt-in service to drive traffic to one of its on-site restaurants, where cashiers can scan the barcodes using standard readers. According to Fred Boos, president and founder of RocketBux, it's a win-win, as guests don't have to download any new applications to their phones, and the resort didn't have to purchase any new point-of-sale hardware.

The mobile marketing software firm is also based in Bend, Ore., and inked the first SMS message deal with Mt. Bachelor in November of 2007. According to Frankie Labbé, communications manager for the resort, Mt. Bachelor signed on for the service both to better deliver info to their guests and cut operating costs.

"We would typically receive more than 100,000 calls to our ski info hotline on a monthly basis, so we saw this as a technology that could help reduce costs for us," Labbé said. "And now our guests can receive their snow information without having to turn on the TV or go to the computer."

While growth in mobile marketing in the U.S. has been somewhat thwarted due to infrastructure, pricing and general adoption issues, Boos said that the increased popularity of devices like the BlackBerry and the iPhone in particular have been "the best things for our business." He added that the company is set to launch a new mobile marketing promotion with Wyoming's Jackson Hole ski resort, and was seeing strong interest from several CPG brands, including Kellogg's and P&G. RocketBux also provides campaign performance reports, and offers the service on a cost-per-conversion model, among others.