ONE-TO-ONE MARKETING: Kellogg's adopts SMS for Corn Flakes boost

Kellogg's, which has secured its place as one of the early adopters of SMS in the ready-to-eat cereals category with the wireless initiative, worked with mobile marketing agency Mobile2Win to develop the campaign.

It was shaped to support the 'Dimaag chalega nahin daudega' ('mind won't walk but run') offline drive.

Yuvraj Arora, marketing manager, Kellogg's India, said: "Dimaag chalega nahin daudega was a multimedia campaign using television, radio and cinema advertising. We extended this to an interactive medium (SMS) to capitalise on the growing urban usage of cell phones.

"The medium lends itself to interactivity by definition and that is what can really help communicate very effectively with a potential consumer."

The brand used a contest and promotion to drive home the benefits of 'Iron Shakti' (the main ingredient in cornflakes) to the target audience, as well as the benefits of a healthy breakfast.

The contest targeted adults aged 25 and up, a segment Kellogg's described as the urban socio-economic class. Consumers were required to SMS 'KCF' and answer questions based around the product's features to participate in the promotion. The questions also doubled up as health tips to consumers.

The campaign allowed consumers to register for the Kellogg's Club to receive downloads from the brand, such as wallpapers for mobile phones and health tips.

The wireless campaign followed the offline initiative, according to Arora, who added: "The SMS campaign was scheduled around the same time with a couple of weeks' lag."

"This is a first for a leading FMCG brand in India, where health tips apart from an SMS promotion have been used to communicate with the target audience," said Rajiv Hiranandani, vice-president of sales and marketing for M2W.

Arora added: "Since we are trying this for the first time, we will wait and watch the quantitative and qualitative response to the same before proceeding.

"As far as the overall use of online and interactive medium in marketing strategies is concerned, I think this depends totally on the product category and target audience and their connectivity and affinity towards the two."