How Puma got the mobile to do the work…

PUMA, one of the world’s leading sporting footwear companies, launched a major mobile campaign in connection with the Formula One race that took place in Shanghai on Oct. 19 2008. The objective of the campaign was to increase brand awareness in China by introducing PUMA’s brand and culture in a fun, original way to the Chinese market.

The comprehensive campaign included a mobile internet site, adver-gaming, coupons, banners, and search and the main focus of the campaign was a mobile game called “F-Wan”, which sounds like “F1″ and means “Play” in Chinese.

To make the campaign more attractive and interactive, Puma set up a number of ways for players to earn prizes. For example, players could submit their race scores to PUMA by SMS and thereby receive points. And, in order to increase the viral aspects of the campaign, points were also given to players that forwarded the game to their friends.The top 3 players each week were awarded PUMA F1 merchandise like shoes, bag and hats. Players could also get wall papers and mobile “themes” based on the race game to let them personalize their phones.

To drive traffic to the mobile site and the mobile game download, the media plan covered all available mobile channels in the chinese market:

• Banners and text links were displayed on the top three Chinese mobile portals: QQ, 3g.cn and Kong.net
• SMS short-codes were integrated in all PUMA out-of-home and print ads. When a used sent ‘PUMA F Wan’ to the campaign short code, they received a clickable SMS with a link to the PUMA mobile Internet site
• WAP push (clickable SMS) were be sent to PUMA members
• SMS mobile search: mobile users who search for any sport related information are sent an SMS which includes a direct link to the PUMA mobile Internet site

Another objective of the campaign was of course to drive business for PUMA. There are 350 PUMA stores in China, and in order to bring traffic to the stores, PUMA sent an MMS coupon to each person that downloaded the mobile driving game. The coupon was redeemable for a mobile phone accessory in the store. The mobile site also had a store locator function to help consumers find the nearest PUMA retailer. In addition, the mobile site provided details of the current promotions going on in the stores as a special feature to help bring people to the shops.

All in all a very innovative, engaging and unique mobile campaign in order to ensure Puma’s media budget delivers the best ROI compared with the huge budgets thrown around by other sports brands in China.