Ice Cream chain Cold Stone Creamery has teamed up with mobile marketing company 8coupons.com for a mobile couponing CRM campaign.
The campaign, which is taking place at the Astor Place store in Manhattan, is a promotion for eight-cent ice cream scoops on June 8. The deal allows consumers to opt in to receive a mobile coupon on their cell phone at 8coupons.com. Once they receive the coupon, which is sent in real time, consumers can redeem it by showing their phone to the cashier on the day of the promotion.
“Cold Stone has a loyal fan base and this helps connect to this fan base on the local level,” said Landy Ung, president and co-founder of 8coupons.com. “It is part of its CRM strategy and works as a database marketing retention and acquisition tool.” With this campaign, Cold Stone is building a mobile phone number database for future campaigns.
To help spread the word, 8coupons.com is also using social networking site Facebook, through the “Me coupons” Facebook application. Consumers can go to Cold Stone’s Facebook profile and sign up to receive the mobile coupon and forward it to their friends. So far, 4,000 people have signed up through Facebook. Cold Stone is also promoting the campaign through point-of-sale displays in the Astor Place store.
The coupon campaign is targeting students, especially from nearby New York University, as well as other East Village residents.
8coupons.com works with businesses on what Ung calls the “hyper local market,” or businesses looking to target consumers on a very local level.
