Regal Cinemas is now using Facebook to promote their weekly mobile coupon deals. You can enter your mobile number directly into the Facebook page after “liking” Regal Cinema’s. After entering your mobile phone number, you will be sent a text message with a link to your first coupon. The coupon works in all Regal, UA, and Edwards theaters, you just need to show the coupon on your mobile phone.
Using Facebook is a great way to promote mobile campaigns, and allows Regal to collect the mobile phone numbers of some of their most loyal fans. Facebook also generates free publicity for Regal’s SMS campaign by allowing subscribers to share the promo with family and friends on their own Facebook pages. This not only generates more SMS subscribers, but also creates more activity on Regal’s Facebook page as well.
The one downside to this SMS campaign is that it only works for people with internet access on their mobile phones. Using web-linked coupons makes it difficult for people to use, and with only 55% of mobile phone owners having internet access, this can leave a lot of customers feeling left out. This SMS campaign is cutting their potential mobile subscribers in half with the link to the coupon. It is always better to include the coupon directly into the text message so that all mobile users can participate.
At what percentage of smartphone penetration will we no longer have to worry about subscribers feeling left out because they can’t access the link? Thoughts?