Tag Archives: mobile marketing

General Mills Adds Brand Loyalty Program

High prices and inflation are big issues for consumers these days. Food inflation reached a 43-year high in June. As inflation keeps prices going high, many consumers are switching to lower-cost store brands instead of higher priced name brands.

To help keep loyal consumers, and to gain new ones, General Mills has launched its first-ever brand loyalty program called Good Rewards. The program includes special offers and points for consumers that can be redeemed for products, gift cards, and more, helping families stretch their grocery dollars.

The program gives consumers rewards every time they purchase General Mills products. Consumers scan receipts after shopping to get rewards, including one percent back on all General Mills purchases.

Good Rewards is part of the popular app Fetch Reward. With roughly 15 million Fetch users, it is the top downloaded shopping app for iPhone and the second most downloaded app for Android users. General Mills has a goal of 1 million consumers to use Good Rewards within a year; in less than a month the gained 350,000 users.

Rewards programs also offer brands a detailed look at consumer behavior and purchase habits. The better companies are at understanding their customers, the more opportunity exists to offer personalized rewards.

Get rewarded!

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Start with a discussion about loyalty and rewards programs and their use in marketing.
  2. Have students count up the number of different rewards programs they participate with. Who has the most?
  3. Show Good Rewards website: https://www.generalmills.com/news/stories/introducing-good-rewards
  4. Show Fetch Rewards website: https://www.fetchrewards.com/
  5. Discuss setting SMART objectives (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound).
  6. Divide students into teams. Have each team develop five SMART objectives for General Mills Good Rewards.
  7. Discuss the objectives. How would the objectives change if a different strategy was used?

Sources:  Johnson, B. (5 August 2022). General Mills adds loyalty app. Minneapolis Star Tribune.

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Apple Advertises its Privacy Strength

Data privacy is undoubtedly an important issue of the times. With the proliferation of mobile devices, website tracking, location enabling, and the pervasiveness of social media, one can be pretty sure that one way or another we are being tracked on our devices.

Apple states “Privacy is a fundamental human right. At Apple, it’s also one of our core values.” Hmm… Even with that statement, it makes one wonder just what is happening with our activities and data. Who know what about us? What do they do with this information?

Enter powerful new advertisements from Apple that illustrates how we are being tracked. The videos show how crowded it gets when companies are tracking our movements and purchases. Great ads.

Apple’s new advertisements, “Tracked,” highlight how its app tracking transparency tool lets users opt out of letting apps track interactions. The company also has the support of privacy watchdog groups such as Privacy International. Users should get to choose for themselves which companies they will share information with about their actions.

The new tool is part of iOS 14.5. It’s simple to choose. When an app wants to follow our activities to share information with third parties, a window shows up on our device to ask for permission. If the answer is “No” the sharing stops. Good for consumers. Not so good for companies (such as Facebook and Google) that rely on tracking to see what we are shopping for in order to target its ads.

Privacy. Simple, powerful, and needed.

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Discuss the topic of privacy and data tracking with students.
  2. What is their opinion? What is their level of concern?
  3. Show Apple’s website statements about privacy: https://www.apple.com/privacy/
  4. Show advertisements: https://youtu.be/8w4qPUSG17Y
  5. Another ad: https://youtu.be/rEWeA7qDV4k
  6. Divide students into teams. Have teams research competing phone manufacturers to see what those privacy policies state.

Source: Advertising Age; Apple; New York Times; other news sources

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NBA Finals Used AirDrop to Connect with Fans

Quick questions: Do you like unexpected ads and announcements on your phone? Does it entertain you, or annoy you?

These were the key questions undertaken in a creative advertising campaign from ESPN and agency R/GA during the NBA finals. The campaign objective was to drive up viewership of the NBA finals. The tool used was Apple’s AirDrop. In case you have forgotten (or not used) AirDrop, the feature enables two users, who are within 30 feet of each other, to transfer files directly between iPhones and other devices.

For the NBA campaign, personalized messages were sent to people who were NOT at the NBA game, but were instead doing other things like sitting on a bench, hanging out with friends, and more non-basketball activities. The stunt was limited in scope, done at only five locations in downtown New York where marketers sent out personalized messages. And, to make sure they didn’t miss a basket, message recipients also got access to the game on live streaming.

Make sure to check your AirDrop settings! Who knows what might show up next.

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Poll students: What is their opinion about using AirDrop to deliver unexpected advertisings?
  2. Does use of AirDrop violate privacy?
  3. Show the case study video: https://www.adweek.com/creativity/espn-freaked-out-iphone-users-by-trolling-them-with-airdrop-during-the-nba-finals/?utm_content=position_2&utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=AW_Adfreak&utm_campaign=Adfreak_Newsletter_2018061313&s_id=516e0a4d191b2a646da5e880
  4. How many students in the room currently have AirDrop enabled? Will they continue with that setting?
  5. Divide students into teams. Have each team develop a promotional campaign to use AirDrop to get attention, and sales.
  6. Debrief the exercise by having each team share its plan.

Source: Beltron, G. (12 June, 2018). ESPN freaked out iPhone users by trolling them with AirDrop during the NBA finals. Ad Week.

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