Cold Stone Creamery turns to SMS marketing to boost business

I stumbled upon another great use and example of SMS text messaging’s ability to engage consumers. Obviously, the holiday season isn’t the busiest time of year for ice cream sales, so Cold Stone Creamery decided to step up their marketing efforts during their “off season.” They ran a tv commercial, targeting families and asking people to text “CREAM” to a six digit short code. Viewers who texted in then received a mobile coupon for a buy one get one offer that expired at the end of January.

Though ice cream isn’t the most popular during the colder time of year, Cold Stone was most likely banking on the popularity of “free” items and giveaways—especially during the holiday season of a recession. Something else worth mentioning is that Cold Stone was attracted to SMS text message marketing because it is a green method of marketing—a pro of SMS that is often ignored.