• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, October 1, 2013

Kansans who responded late in the evening to an SMS offer for 99-cent burgers at two Kansas Dairy Queens may have arrived to a surprise. Too many other opted-in customers responded to the same ad and the DQs were sold out of burgers. In fact, business was so brisk at one of the outlets as a result of the day-long offer that the owner was called in to run the grill for a while to satisfy demand.

The program was a promotion for National Cheeseburger Day sent to a list of 1,482 list members for three DQs in Kansas and first reported by Mobile Marketing Watch. The simple call to action announced the special day (who knew?). “Sink Your Teeth in .99 Cent Cheeseburgers @ Dairy Queen {STORE LOCATION} until 8PM Tonight/No Limit/Show Text – FWD-2-Friends!”

Well, there is your problem right there -- “no limit” and an invitation to transfer it to others. And then there is the 00-cent burger, of course. Well, not a problem, really. But the exercise does go to show just how powerful SMS can be in terms of local, immediate pushes of activity.

One of the DQs reported that 106 additional customers came in -- a 483% increase in traffic, just from a list of 590 SMS subscribers to the list.

The program was administered by VIPTextDeals.com using a licensed platform from SMS Mastermind, which has store loyalty and mobile redemption products. The platform owner says that it distributed ideas like “National Days” to its licensees about two weeks in advance so the licensee can contact the local merchants and come up with appropriate special offers.   

Text is still basic and perhaps unrivaled in its ability to mobilize consumers. Regardless of the richness of subsequent app, mobile Web and alerting functionality, there still is no channel quite as immediate, intimate and attention-grabbing as this.

Many years ago I recall when the CEO of an early provider of loyalty and shopping services to malls recounted the first time they experimented with SMS flash sales at a mall. They hit opted-in mall shoppers at the venue with a time-limited 30-minute offer for a free gift card for the first set number of people who came into a certain store. The CEO was at the venue and called in the order to send the alert. He told me that he literally saw people look at their phones and witnessed waves of people racing toward the advertised outlet. The mall security requested the company never do that again, for safety and liability issues alone.

SMSMastermind’s platform uses in-store touchscreen kiosks to let users opt in to loyalty programs. The company claims 1.1 million participants across clients and licensees. It licenses the technology to over 60 businesses in 30 states.