Universal Studios’ The Bourne Ultimatum is running a mobile advertising campaign in the UK and Australia through a partnership with Mobot, a visual search company. The effort lasted two weeks and coincided with the media blitz for the opening of the movie in each country.
Mobot’s mobile technology provides instantaneous interaction between a brand and a consumer, from magazine ads to products to billboards, using a cell phone camera.
“The point for teaming up with us was to make it easy to for consumers to create an instant connection between traditional print media and a valued mobile phone experience, in particular, multimedia in the form of a video trailer, as well as incentives to drive people directly to the theater,” said Russ Gocht, CEO of Mobot.
Universal Studios declined to comment on this campaign. The film studio is targeting the movie-going public with this campaign. The age range is 13 to 40 years old.
This campaign uses MMS short codes, which allow users to send the photos and other multimedia files directly to a five-digit shortcode.
Some examples of text messages users receive from the campaign are, “Involve yourself with Jason Bourne,” “Engage with Bourne,” or “A Message from Jason Bourne.”
Mobot’s mobile platform allows for detailed measurement and reporting of consumer interaction. For instance, tracking time of day when ads are seen or snapped, and then correlating this with offer redemption data.
“This is an early example of how mobile visual search will work: æclick’ [snap photo and send] to a universal, well-known short code,” said Gocht. “This is part of the consumer education of how easy it is to search using visual cues.”
The goal of the campaign was to build consumer awareness and present brand offers, like discounted tickets and entertaining brand experiences, such as movie trailers, in a fun and compelling way.
“At this stage, the best indicator is that the client intends to do more campaigns like this one,” Gocht said. “We cannot disclose specifics of this campaign.”
Mobot has run mobile advertising programs for Elle Girl, The Sopranos, MasterCard, Calvin Klein and Citibank.
“At Mobot, we talk about ævisual cues,’ and these are all around us during our daily activities,” Gocht said. “For example, a commuter at the train station sees that poster for Wicked: A New Musical and instantaneously thinks, æI would like to get tickets.’
“Point your phone, click and send a picture to the Mobot shortcode, and connect to the Wicked mobile site,” he explained. “Now you can get those tickets, but also read reviews, buy music or ring tones, and [see] additional merchandising possibilities.”
