Vibes Media

During 2004, cell phone short message service (SMS), or more widely know as text messaging, experienced an explosion regarding adoption and its use as a marketing tool. As droves of people adopted and sent billions of messages, brands were taking notice and wondering: can we tap into this medium to speak to consumers? The answer was a resounding, YES! Mega brands such as Anheuser-Busch, Hershey’s and McDonald’s started rolling out programs; however, an opportunity existed to continue to educate marketing and branding professionals regarding the power and philosophy behind successful text messaging marketing programs.

Vibes Media, the company behind successful Anheuser-Busch, Hershey’s and McDonald’s SMS programs, has been in the messaging industry for over six years. Vibes offers a product called the Instant Response Platform which allows brands to engage consumers in an interactive dialog via text messaging, thus exposing consumers to a brand’s content repeatedly. Because Vibes is a veteran company in text marketing and had developed a proven formula for SMS interaction success, the time had come to communicate the Vibes SMS philosophy to marketing and branding professionals in order to ensure that Vibes was seen as not only the leader in the market, but also the company with the right SMS marketing methodology.

The Challenge

Vibes’ President Jack Philbin saw PROMO Magazine as a key publication because of its reach and audience. Jack was clear that securing quality coverage in PROMO was critical because the magazine spoke to senior and mid-level executives responsible for brand strategy, as well as contests and sweepstakes. These are individuals Vibes needed to be in front of because they are the decision makers that influence where and how brand promotion money is spent. This was an audience that Vibes wanted to further penetrate in order to gain additional traction regarding consumer-oriented brands.

Tasked with getting coverage in PROMO, PAN Communications conducted extensive research regarding the current writers at the publication and the topics/subjects they covered. One of the biggest hurdles regarding this assignment was the fact that various PROMO reporters not only needed to be convinced the subject was worth writing about, but they needed to be educated, from the ground up, regarding how text messaging was being used for marketing and branding.

The Strategy

Due to the extensive time PAN put into researching writers and topics, we were determined that two individuals could be leveraged at PROMO Magazine: Kathleen Joyce and Tim Parry.

Kathleen Joyce is an editor and has great influence over the content covered in PROMO. It was PAN’s strategy and goal to not only educate Kathleen on text messaging, but to have her write about the technology as well. When it came to pitching Kathleen, PAN’s strategy was very formal, consistent and persistent. By providing Kathleen with product updates as well as consistent proof points regarding companies using text for marketing and brand purposes, she would learn about the medium and become more and more intrigued. Through our consistent educational approach, Kathleen decided to explore the subject of text messaging in three separate PROMO issues.

Along with pitching Kathleen, it was also part of our strategy to contact Editor Tim Parry. PAN decided to target Tim because he covered sports, an industry Vibes focused heavily on, and because we had a previous relationship with Tim while he was at Customer Inter@ction Solutions. It was our hope that the combination of our existing relationship coupled with Tim’s sports beat would enable us to secure his interest. Our calculation was correct; Tim was immediately enthralled by the subject and wished to conduct an interview. Unbeknownst to us, but aiding our strategy, it was discovered during Tim and Vibes’ first conversation that Jack Philbin, Vibes’ president, grew up in the same hometown as Tim. Leveraging this small but quirky connection, Jack formed an immediate bond with Tim which assisted us in garnering Tim’s attention on numerous additional occasions.

PAN’s strategy and goal with PROMO Magazine was not just to secure editorial mentions, but coverage that spoke to the key differentiators that makes Vibes standout from the crowd. It was vital that marketing and promotions professional not only saw the company’s name, but learned about Vibes’ way of conducting SMS marketing programs.

The Results

Due to PAN’s research, persistence and cultivation of relationships, the agency was able to display Vibes Media’s strength as a leading SMS vendor and secure multiple pieces of coverage in PROMO Magazine, including:

• A secured piece regarding the promotion Vibes ran with U.S. Cellular and the Chicago White Sox. This piece was written by Tim Parry and entitled, “Text Messaging Promo, Latest Attraction for White Sox Fans.” – April 27, 2004


• Coverage in Kathleen Joyce’s feature regarding text messaging entitled, “Playing into Their Hands.” – July 27, 2004


• Inclusion in Tim Parry’s piece entitled, “Real Time ROI” about how organizations can track and measure ROI. – August 2004


• A secured piece of coverage entitled, “Text-2-Screen Platform Promotes Brand Awareness” that highlights how Chicago’s Tweeter Center is using the technology for advertising and fun. – August 17, 2004


• Coverage in Kathleen Joyce’s piece entitled “Setting Standard” that further discusses text messaging communication and includes comments from Vibes. – September 2004


• A Q&A piece by Tim Parry entitled “Damage Control” regarding how organizations are working to prevent incidences, such as the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction. Jack Philbin from Vibes is included in this piece talking about how the company prevents problems with its Text-2-Screen platform. – January 2005


• Inclusion in Tim Parry’s piece entitled “What’s in a Name?” about the types of promotions that are being run at sporting events. Vibes was included in this piece talking about its experience working with the Golden State Warriors and Chicago White Sox. – March 2005


• A piece written by Tim Parry covering the Mobile Marketing Association’s establishment of guidelines about phone spam. Vibes was included as a commentator in the May 2005 article.

Overall, PAN far exceeded Vibes’ expectations regarding coverage in PROMO. In addition, we proved that relationships are at the core of our business and by taking the time to cultivate and learn about individual reporters, phenomenal results can and do occur.