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Company: Tavistock Leisure
Project: Blue Cross Sale

Dates: Dec 2007 to Feb 2008

How did the project start?

We were looking to create a promotion to drive sales through January and February, a traditionally quiet time of year in the restaurant and bar industry. We devised a Blue Cross Sale promotion which gave those who showed a text message the opportunity to enjoy one of a whole series of offers, this included a 50 per cent discount on lunch or dinner, a free bottle of wine or special accommodation offer at all Tavistock Leisure sites across the North East.

What options did you consider?

We looked at email promotions, in-paper advertising and direct mail before deciding on a text message campaign based on a Blue Cross Sale

What help and expertise did you receive?

We had previously worked with Interlinked Media to collect data and it seemed logical to build on this relationship for this new campaign. They guided us through the whole process as we had never done anything like this before. They assisted us deciding on what offers would be more appealing to mobile phone users and they helped us formulate an internal process for dealing with voucher redemption. They also provided us with statistics on those who had received the text and the responses from print ads.

Did you face any challenges or learn any lessons?

We had to changr the offer wording slightly during the campaign. We also realised that this was a far more effective system than those used in previous campaigns ie emails which also fell foul of firewalls and spam filters.

What are the outcomes and how has it improved your business?

It was an incredibly successful campaign. Not only has it massively increased our database, the response rate was astonishing. Footfall increased across all sites and sales reached particularly high levels, given the time of year. We had very positive feedback from customers who found the text system much simpler to use and better than other devices ie cutting vouchers from a newspaper.

What are your plans for the future?

The success of this promotion means that we are committed to repeating it and we have already started using text messaging in other campaigns and will continue to do so.