Wendy's Mobile: The Mysterious Disappearing Campaign

In December 2009, Options Media, an opt-in e-mail marketing firm located in Boca Raton, Fla., announced that it would be working with fast-food burger chain Wendy’s to test mobile couponing. The test would occur at select but undisclosed locations in the Northeast before a rollout began nationwide.

According to a company statement, mobile phone owners opt in to the program to receive discounts at select Wendy’s locations. Coupons are received via text messaging and can be redeemed by showing the mobile devices at the cash register.

Don’t be impressed by the value of the campaign, regardless of how intensely it’s promoted in the media, until the results are released.

“With our recent acquisition of a robust mobile solutions and functionalities [from H20], we are able to offer a multitude of mobile marketing campaigns to our clients,” said Scott Frohman, CEO of Options Media, in the statement. “There has been a growing trend of advertisers shifting marketing dollars from traditional media to mobile devices and we are able to stay in the forefront of these solutions.”

Because of the increased incorporation of mobile marketing into clients’ multichannel marketing programs, Printing News decided to look more deeply into it.

Interestingly, however, while the press release about the campaign was reproduced in all of the top marketing industry magazines and blogs, no further information on the campaign was available. Where were these locations? How was the campaign being promoted? How did people sign up? How was the program performing to date?

Printing News went to the Wendy’s Web site. No information was posted. Printing News made two calls to Scott Frohman, the CEO of Options Media, but the calls were not returned by presstime.

Printing News called the consumer hotline at Wendy’s, where we learned that only a single location participated in the program—Springfield, Mass.—but when we called there, again no information was available.

Wendy’s corporate had no comment.

The lack of information on the success or implementation of the program speaks for itself. This is unfortunate because mobile marketing is on the rise.

As reported by Mobi Ad News, Forrester Research forecasts the growth rate for mobile advertising at 27 percent per year.

ABI Research forecasts that global spending on mobile marketing and advertising will see a 13-fold increase between 2006 and 2011.

Moreover, resistance to mobile marketing is diminishing. According to Forrester Research, while 61 percent of consumers were opposed to mobile advertising in 2008, this is down from 80 percent opposed in 2006.

We should expect to be seeing more success stories, and over time, certainly such stories will be more forthcoming.

Other Programs Roll On
In the meantime, perhaps we’ll need to turn our eyes to other retailers’ mobile marketing programs instead. According to Direct Marketing News (“Wendy’s to test mobile coupons in Northeast,” Dec. 22, 2009), other fast-food chains currently offering coupons on mobile phones include Papa John’s, Burger King and Dairy Queen.

This should also remind the industry of another important marketing truth. Don’t be impressed by the value of the campaign, regardless of how intensely it’s promoted in the media, until the results are released. Everything sounds impressive in a press release.

Heidi Tolliver-Nigro is an industry writer, an analyst specializing in digital workflow and technologies. Her e-mail address is [email protected].