In March of last year, I highlighted Nabbit as a cool online tool for tagging songs on the radio using your cell phone. It still is, though there are now competing technologies available.But what sets Nabbit apart, and makes it interesting to both b2b and b2c marketing professionals, is the tool's ability to serve as a platform for integrated advertising campaigns.
To learn more, I spoke with John Freund, CEO of Jump Technologies, Inc. (JumpTech), the creator of Nabbit and Nabbit Ads. Here's our discussion.
WebMarketCentral (WMC): What exactly is Nabbit Ads, and how does it work?
John Freund (JF): Nabbit Ads® allows advertisers to create integrated radio, tv, outdoor, print, mobile, digital and social network advertising campaigns. For example, a listener on the radio hears an ad from a coffee vendor (lets call it “Joe’s Java”) that says to text in the word “coffee” and receive a coupon on your phone good for a free cup of coffee today. When the listener sends in the text, an ad for Joe’s Java is automatically saved for them in their Nabbit account. If the listener didn’t have a Nabbit account, one would automatically be created for them and a follow on text message would be sent telling them about the account.
If the listener has opted to share their Nabbs with their friends on Twitter or Facebook, a message would also appear there. For example, the message would say “Tom Pick just nabbed a free cup of coffee from Joe’s Java. Text Coffee to 545454 to get yours”. This is an example of a radio ad that drives a mobile coupon that launches a digital ad on Nabbit.com as well as a social message on Facebook.
WMC: What kinds of companies can benefit most from using this technology?
JF: Any business can benefit from Nabbit Ads. At its core, Nabbit helps people remember what they heard on radio, saw on TV or read in print. I am sure you can remember a time when you heard an ad for a product or a service that you wanted to act on but couldn’t because it wasn’t convenient. Nabbit allows the consumer to Nabb the ad and act on it later.
So, if you are a retailer and want to launch a coupon promotion, Nabbit Ads is a great tool. If you run a service group and want people to remember to go to your website, Nabbit Ads can help with that. If you own a restaurant and are looking to drive people into your store, Nabbit helps that tremendously. Again, Nabbit allows the consumer to Nabb the opportunity at the time they hear it, and act on it when it is convenient for them. Nabbing the ad sets in motion a sequence of events that spreads it in a very viral way through mobile, the internet and social networks.
WMC: Can you provide some real-world examples of companies using Nabbit Ads and what results they’ve seen?
JF: We helped Fox Television launch the Dollhouse series by adding tags to the end of their existing radio spots that said “To be reminded to tune into to the premier of Dollhouse, text the word 'Dollhouse' to 545454." Listeners who sent the text received a message one hour before the show started, reminding them to tune in. Listeners who requested the reminder also received an ad in their Nabbit account for a Dollhouse contest where they could win wardrobe from the show by answering a question during the show.
We also either Tweeted or posted a Facebook news feed that alerted the listener’s friends and followers that they had just set a reminder to watch Dollhouse. The message also instructed the friends and followers to text Dollhouse to 545454 to receive their own reminder. Any person who responded to the Tweet or Facebook item also received the contest ad in their Nabbit Account.
The contest was designed to cause the viewer to tune in live during the show. A question about the show was posted at Nabbit.com. The user saw the question by clicking on the link in the Nabbit Ad that was posted when they texted in for their reminder. Once at that link, they read the question and then watched the show for the answer. We created a “Fox Channel” on our Nabbit phone applications (iPhone, m.nabbit.com and our Java Mobile app) and made it available to those who registered to participate in the contest.
During the show, viewers opened the Fox Channel in Nabbit on their phones and saw four possible answers to the question. When they thought they knew the answer, they pressed the corresponding button on their phone. The winner was selected out of all who submitted the correct answers. Again, this only worked during the actual broadcast. If a viewer watched Dollhouse on their DVR after the show, the contest didn’t work.
Fox was looking to accomplish two things in this campaign: increase viewers to the premier as well as increase live viewers rather than DVR viewers (as people with DVRs can fast forward through commercials). 33% of those who registered for the contest actually participated, which meant that they actually watched the show live—a number much higher than Fox anticipated.
WMC: Nabbit Ads seems like a pretty unique product. Who do view as competitors and how does Nabbit Ads compare to their offerings?
JF: Our primary competition comes in two areas. First, just within the marketing departments of the companies we are talking to, responsibility for mobile, digital and social network advertising is often fragmented. Many companies now have a traditional marketing group, a digital group, a mobile group and a social network group. In most cases, these groups don't work well together.
We came across one company that contacted us through their radio buyers asking to run a mobile campaign with us. We later found out that this company's mobile group was planning the same type of campaign. The radio people were trying to buy mobile and the mobile people were trying to buy radio—a real waste of time and money. We spend a great deal of time in our sales cycles just trying to get these groups to work together and drive much higher ROI from leveraging the strengths of each platform to work together.
Our second form of competition comes from the mobile text messaging crowd. There are literally hundreds of companies like Hipcricket and Vibes that sell mobile texting campaigns. While great companies with good products, they are very one-dimensional. The listener can text in a keyword in response to an ad. There is no linkage to digital or social networking, which are the two hottest ad platforms today. Nabbit Ads is the only service that allows advertisers to build truly integrated campaigns across all media types today.
WMC: What’s the pricing structure for Nabbit Ads?
JF: We price our products just like search engine advertising is priced today. Everything is set up on a cost-per-click basis. This creates a no-risk opportunity for advertisers. If our campaigns are not successful, advertisers will not pay for it. We have budget caps so that when the campaign response is higher than anticipated, we can alert the advertiser that they are approaching their budget, and they can decide how they want to move forward.
WMC: Anything else you’d like to add?
JF: The other key component of Nabbit Ads is the measurability of everything we do. Our customers have real-time analytics available to them to track response rates to their campaigns. They can see what media outlet works when. They can see the demographics of those responding as well as the viral impact of the campaign. These are examples of just a few of the many reports we provide. The bottom line is that we provide analytics that most advertisers have only dreamed of.
Finally, Nabbit Ads is extremely easy to implement. Advertisers can Nabbit-enable an ad with a simple 10-second tag at the end of existing creative, or a crawler on the bottom of a TV ad, or a simple texting option in an existing print ad. We get campaigns up and running within hours of notification from our clients. The process is quick and easy, and leads to terrific a terrific ROI for our customers. With our shared risk/shared reward pay-per-click pricing model, there is very little risk to an advertiser in trying Nabbit Ads.
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Contact Mike Bannan: mike@digitalrdm.com
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