Press Releases

Mobile Marketing Solution Developed by Signal Helps TOMS Shoes Put its Best Foot Forward

CHICAGO, July 10 /PRNewswire/ -- To help stay on-message with a young audience during its promotional Vagabond Tour, TOMS Shoes is utilizing Signal's mobile marketing solution, TextMe, a web-based application which allows TOMS Shoes' promotional teams to collect e-mail addresses while telling their unique story.

With every pair purchased, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One for One. To generate awareness and excitement for its cause, TOMS worked with Signal's on a ten-week field promotion, the Vagabond Tour, which consisted of five teams traveling the country in TOMS Shoes vans, stopping at college campuses to distribute promotional information and sweepstakes opportunities.

Key to the success of the Vagabond Tour is the ability to cast a wide net and cultivate new customers and promoters of the TOMS One for One model, and gathering contact information for future dialogue had always been a difficult process. Instead of relying on cumbersome methods for collecting e-mail addresses, TOMS realized mobile technology would be a perfect fit to target their 18-24 year old audience. Working with TOMS, INTERACTIVE MEDIUMS crafted a mobile messaging technology solution to enable e-mail addresses to be captured by their TextMe application.

By texting the word "TOMS," participants receive a return text message encouraging them to reply back with an e-mail address to be entered into a sweepstakes. This exchange with the customer can be managed electronically, allowing the TOMS team to talk directly to the customers who are most likely to get excited about TOMS core mission.

The ease of using TextMe, along with better results, helped make the Vagabond Tour a success for TOMS staff. "TextMe offers TOMS a unique mobile solution for interacting with TOMS customers," said Jeff Judge, co-founder of Signal.

TextMe not only reduces the paperwork for marketers, it increases the amount of interactivity the client has with potential customers. By weaving mobile marketing into their field events, TOMS was able to initiate an immediate, personal and relevant dialogue with their target market, collect customer data and develop an ongoing relationship - all from an intuitive, web-based mobile dashboard.

According to Caitlin Coble, Social Media Manager for TOMS, "I made it clear from the beginning that we'd never worked with mobile messaging campaigns before, and I might be asking lots of questions," says Caitlin. "The team was very patient, walking me through the process step by step, helping me to understand how mobile messaging works and the best practices involved. We plan on using mobile messaging with multiple marketing campaigns now and in the future."

TOMS Shoes

In 2006, American traveler Blake Mycoskie befriended children in a village in Argentina and found they had no shoes to protect their feet. Wanting to help, he created TOMS Shoes, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. One for One. TOMS far exceeded our initial expectations and has improved the lives of children and families around the world with its giving efforts. Please visit www.TOMSshoes.com to see the difference one purchase makes!

CONTACT: Jeff Judge, +1-312-268-6041