Key takeaways
- Baxter Avenue Morgue used a simple SMS keyword sweepstakes (text BAXTER) to rapidly build a mobile contact list and enable future remarketing.
- They targeted teens and young adults in Louisville and southern Indiana, segments heavier on texting, to maximize message visibility and conversions.
- TV spots during Halloween-themed programming (e.g., AMC’s Fear Fest, ABC’s 13 Nights of Halloween) drove signups; spots were 15 seconds long with a clear CTA.
- Campaign optimization was data-driven: track signups by spot, pull weaker placements and invest more in successful networks/time slots.
- Results: thousands joined the mobile list and more than 50% opted in to receive future messages.
- Lesson: SMS success hinges on targeted audiences, the right channels, modest incentives and ongoing optimization rather than big budgets.
Introduction
The impact of mobile marketing can’t be overstated. According to IDC, more people in the U.S. will access the Internet through a mobile device than through their PC by 2015. In this new series, Elite Email takes a look at highly successful campaigns to uncover their mobile marketing lessons. This week’s case study: How Baxter Avenue Morgue connected with customers looking for the perfect Halloween scare via smart SMS messages. For many people, there’s nothing quite like Halloween. While other holidays focus on bringing together friends and family for more serious reasons, this night is all about scaring the pants off each other. To help add an extra element to the fun and festivities, haunted houses, like the Baxter Avenue Morgue in Louisville, Kentucky, offer up delightfully ghoulish attractions. Unfortunately, when it comes to seasonal businesses with a short operational run, competition can be pretty stiff. With this mind, Baxter Avenue Morgue decided to go all in on a smart SMS plan in an effort to get a leg up on the rest of market. Even if your brand isn’t in the business of scaring its audience, there’s still plenty you can learn by taking a look at this haunted house’s frighteningly successful text message campaign.
The Basic SMS Plan
Baxter Avenue Morgue had one goal in mind when it came to setting up an SMS operation – engage it’s audience and set up future remarketing opportunities. To do this, the campaign decided to offer up a chance to win two free tickets to the attraction for anyone willing to join the haunted house’s mobile marketing contact list. All customers had to do was text the keyword BAXTER and wait for a new contest winner at the end of each week of the promotion.
Taking It a Step Farther with Targeting
However, no great campaign just fires off messages with reckless abandon and hopes for the best. Like plenty of other cases in this mobile marketing series, Baxter Avenue Morgue understood the importance of targeting. With this in mind, the haunted house chose to focus on teenagers and young adults in the Louisville and southern Indiana areas. Not only were these two portions of the local population into scary scenarios and thrills, they’re also some of the most active segments of the population when it comes to texting and mobile phone use. Basically, there’s little chance that an SMS message from the haunted house would go unnoticed by those who can’t stand being away from their phones.
Tuning Into the Right Channels
To get the word out on this campaign, Baxter Avenue Morgue picked up commercial spots during high volume television periods. Honing in on open commercial space during related programming, like AMC’s Fear Fest and ABC’s 13 Nights of Halloween, helped add a little extra punch to an already smart campaign approach. As information came in about these TV spots and correlated signup numbers, Baxter Avenue Morgue focused on optimizing its marketing budget by pulling weaker results and adding extra spots on successful networks and time slots.
The Final Numbers
Once the dust had settled and the campaign came to a close, the SMS campaign managers were ready to tally the results. In total, thousands of customers from the surrounding areas joined the mobile marketing list, giving Baxter Avenue Morgue a major boost in SMS contacts. From here, more than 50 percent decided to stick around and receive future messages from the organization. Considering that the commercial spots employed by the haunted house ran for only 15 seconds – a relatively short time to convey a call-to-action (CTA) – and that the value of the sweepstakes tickets were just $40 a pair, having such a positive and lasting response makes the results even more impressive.
Everything Your Business Needs to Scare Up the Same Success
So now that you know Baxter Avenue Morgue’s story, what lessons can you pull from this tale of mobile marketing success? To start, finding the right portion of your audience, and connecting with these individuals via the appropriate media, goes a long way. SMS marketing is more about quality than quantity, so don’t be afraid to focus on a select group, especially if these people are the most likely to convert by a wide margin.
From here, you don’t have to spend an arm and leg on marketing to make a splash if you have a smart strategy. This haunted house gave away one pair of tickets a week, hardly a king’s ransom by any stretch of the imagination, yet it still raked in thousands of new customers. With this lesson, and everything else you’ve learned from Baxter Avenue Morgue, you should have all the info you need to scare up some stunning results of your own the next time you send out a text.
FAQ
They ran a keyword sweepstakes: people texted the keyword BAXTER to join the haunted house’s mobile list and be entered to win two free tickets; a new winner was announced each week.
They focused on teenagers and young adults in Louisville and southern Indiana because those groups are active texters and more likely to notice SMS messages.
They bought 15‑second commercial spots during high‑volume, Halloween‑themed TV programming (for example, AMC’s Fear Fest and ABC’s 13 Nights of Halloween) and monitored signups to reallocate budget to the best networks and time slots.
They correlated signup numbers with each TV spot, pulled placements that produced weaker results and added extra spots on networks and time slots that performed well.
Thousands of local customers joined the mobile marketing list and more than 50% of those subscribers chose to receive future messages. The TV commercials ran for 15 seconds and the sweepstakes prize was two tickets worth $40 a pair.
They offered a weekly prize of two free tickets (valued at $40 per pair). The campaign succeeded with this modest incentive rather than a large expenditure.
Prioritize the right audience and channels, use a clear and simple CTA (e.g., a keyword text), offer a modest but relevant incentive and continually optimize placements based on signup data, quality of subscribers matters more than raw volume.
