Smart Phones as Marketing Tools

Underwriters Laboratory's ubiquitous but somewhat invisible UL mark is attached to most consumer devices, since it is the industry standard for safety-checking electronics equipment. For a campaign designed to raise consumer awareness of the UL mark and its home safety message for mothers, a cross-platform campaign that used mobile technology as a key element in making the logo visible again was created. The campaign involved the "Just Look for UL Sweepstakes" which ran in print magazine spreads and business response cards, online banner ads, and an outreach to online influencers. People could enter the contest by snapping a phone cam image of a UL logo attached to any nearby electronics device. They could send the image via email or short code and enter the photos into a daily drawing for a digital camera and a grand prize of $10,000. The response messages went via email, which helped engage the users on the Web or encouraged smart phone users to click through on the mobile device. The sweepstakes entry was available online as well, and in the end about 11% of the 85,400 unique entries came from phone cam submissions. The most interesting aspect of the campaign from a mobile perspective is how it leveraged an existing phone habit -- taking photos opportunistically with a cam -- and directed it to create a new habit: looking for the UL assurance label. The campaign engaged the device and user on the simplest level: how people tend to use their phones in the wild, and how that behavior dove-tails with the presence of the brand in their lives. There is a cool seamlessness to this campaign across its goals, messaging and use of device. It clearly used mobile to make a point about the invisible ubiquity of the brand that no other medium could have made in quite the same way.