Well, it’s week five of the early fall semester.  We’ve surpassed the half way point of class and can see the due dates for our final projects tumbling towards us at a pace that would make Usain Bolt jealous.  As I mentioned before, the final project for IMC 619 is a blog that each member of our class has been working on for the past five weeks.  If you’re a loyal reader of the IMC Student Blog (I’m talking to you Mom!), then you may have noticed that I posted this submission later than usual this week.  Work has intensified with the kick off of my employer’s recruitment cycle. 

The reason I mention this is that my IMC 619 “Mowing the Digital Landscape” blog has suffered over the past two weeks as well due to the uptake of my out-of-school commitments.  But I hope to spend some time this weekend, on location in Chardon, OH for my mom’s 60th birthday party, to get caught up. 

She’s the one on the left!

If you’ve been reading my other blog, give me a couple of days to refresh the content before you check it out again.  And stop stalking me.  Even I don’t read both of my blogs.

To Text or Not to Text, That is the Question

One of our IMC 619 objectives this past week was to understand why mobile marketing can be an important tool in the marketing communications mix.  The discussion assignment was to focus on how to best leverage this emerging medium, as well as create a mobile marketing message of our own.  Most of my research was on the record setting text blast used by Senator Barack Obama to announce the pick of Joe Biden as his running mate. 

According to Nielsen Mobile, roughly 2.9 million people received the following text message from the Obama camp:  “Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee. Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3 p.m. ET on www.barackobama.com. Spread the word!”  A press release from Nielson Media confirms that Obama’s text blast constitutes as “the single largest mobile marketing event in the U.S. to date.”  It’s also estimated that the total cost of this mobile marketing tactic was around $290,000, far below what the candidate would have paid to make the announcement via a national television and print campaign.

I proposed a marketing message that would quickly announce admissions decision to applicants of the graduate program I currently recruit for during my day job.  Some of my favorite posts from my classmates included movie theaters texting patrons about new releases, GameStop offering a coupon to those that responded to a text message, and travel companies keeping their customers up to date on the status of their flights & hotel reservations.  The majority of the class indicated that there is room for mobile marketing within most IMC campaigns, just as long as consumers clearly opt-in to the service.  What do you think?  Is sending a text message just part of the evolution of direct marketing, or is it an invasion of privacy that only Big Brother could be proud of?

Rock of Aged

To wrap up my ramblings this week, I’m going back to my Mom for a second (That’s three references in this post Mary.  I assume your check is in the mail). I’ve had the hardest time trying to pick out a 60th birthday present, other than the obligatory “you’re young at heart” Hallmark card, and the box of industrial strength Depends from Sam’s Club.  All very exciting, but I’d like to come up with something that has a little more pizzazz. 

What I’d really like to get her is an iPod.  My mom’s a music lover.  One of my favorite stories is one about how she snuck out of her house as a teenager to attend the Beatles’ concert in Cleveland.  She’s also the type of person that plays the beat of a song on the steering wheel while driving, so a portable juke box would be right up her alley.  But I’m worried my $150 investment may gather more moss than a toupee in Tony Kornheiser’s desk drawer. 

My parents once gave me a very expensive home stereo system because they never figured out how to use it.  Not sure she’ll have more luck with a device that’s smaller than her cell phone.  Anyone out there have any luck giving their geriatric relatives a Steve Job’s special?  Did it end up on eBay or are they building playlists featuring the very best of Christopher Cross?