I’ve just received congratulations on my successful high school graduation and been asked to share my memories of the senior prom. It’s a bit hard to think myself back to those days—to give a hint, the song for the graduating class of Manhasset High was that new hit “Bridge over Troubled Water”—but for the folks at David’s Bridal, I’ll try.

Of course, I’m probably not the target for their recent mobile marketing campaign built around high school prom-goers. I simply signed into the marketing initiative in early May because it struck me as a well integrated, easily understood campaign that promised some benefits to the user while raising awareness and driving traffic for the company’s Web site and its 300 retail shops—exactly what mobile seems to be able to do well, and quickly.

Basically, girls thinking about the prom as far back as last February were targeted with print ads that induced them to text the keyword “PROM” to a short code to get content on their cell phones.

But that content went beyond a simple brand awareness message about David’s gown inventory. Recipients were asked to connect via their phones to a mobile Web site, http://m.davidsprom.com, and to vote for their favorite among five prom dress styles, from classic and dramatic to exotic and fashionista. Participants whose phones couldn’t connect to the Internet were able to respond to the e-mail and get the pictures sent to them directly.

Asking users to choose among several options accomplished a few goals, according to David Geipel, CEO of Qwasi, the mobile marketing platform that managed both the messaging campaign and the mobile Web site for David’s Bridal. First and foremost, it got users actively involved—always a good thing. Besides making their own choices, they could also forward either the e-mail with the pics or the mobile Web itself site to their friends.

In addition, the results of the voting gave David’s some early-season merchandising insight about what styles and categories were likely to be popular once buying began.

“David’s Bridal was able to gain access to insight that would not otherwise have been available until they were in the middle of the season,” Geipel says. “They very successfully polled the tastes of their customers going into the season. That gives them the ability to react and confirm their marketing mix.”

(Just to relieve the suspense, prom “classic” was the big style winner by far. I didn’t vote, since my own prom choice—a chocolate brown tux with flared pants and lapels the size of the tailfins on a ’59 Cadillac—wasn’t an option.)

Qwasi was confident that mobile marketing in general would be an effective approach to the target audience of girls 13 to 17, but the provider wanted to make sure that the campaign’s impact would be felt to the fullest extent and in the easiest way for the consumer. That’s why it provided both an SMS option and a mobile Web site.

“Teenagers all text—that’s what they do,” Geipel says. “Research shows the average teen sends out over 1,800 text messages a month, compared to about 500 a month for the general population. But we had to allow for different messaging plans and accommodate both teens who could accept picture messaging on their phones, because that’s often an option or a service upgrade, and those who didn’t. We let those users click to the WAP [wireless application protocol] site to view the styles.

That kind of flexible approach is key to designing a strong mobile experience. Marketers have to be prepared to launch a broad campaign that gives the best possible experience over a range of phones with differences from screen sizes to functionalities. And they shouldn’t make too many assumptions about how their campaign will look at the other end of the receiver.

For example, the iPhone is one of the most popular handsets among the teen demographic, with a 24% intent to buy in the next six months, Geipel points out that right now iPhones can’t accept multimedia messages, a/k/a picture messaging. That function should come with a software update later this summer. But for now, simply assuming that you’re sending your campaign to a lot of high-end phones still requires some extra spadework to produce a high-end experience for the user.

That was one reason behind providing a specific mobile site for the campaign. David’s Bridal also had a prom-centric standard Web site and in fact promoted sign-ups for the mobile campaign at that site starting in late February. And of course iPhone users could reach that site without issues. But a full-featured Web site like that would take a long time to download to even a smartphone and might not work properly or easily once it did.

So Qwasi built out a David’s Prom site optimized specifically for mobile. If you’ve never seen one of these laid out, they look like a string of separate panes in a line rather than the usual single Web page with a number of modules. Time was, each pane would have to include navigation tools so users could click to the next one, usually positioned at the top so they were accessible even if the bottom was cut off by the phone’s frame. Now enough people have either scroll wheels on their phones or touch screen capabilities that those tools don’t need to take up valuable screen real estate.

Mobile sites also offer stripped-down functionality compared to a standard Web site. For example, the David’s Prom mobile site didn’t offer the video clips, product search or e-commerce options available at the main Web site: just photos of the dresses in the five categories, a link within each category to see a second dress sample, the DBprom.com URL and the “Forward to a Friend” link.

Qwasi did make sure to provide one function at the mobile site, however: a store finder that let users get locations and store operating hours by inputting their ZIP codes. Mobile users who responded to the gown vote via SMS were also sent a thank-you note that allowed them to text in their ZIP to get the address of the nearest David’s Bridal—making the mobile channel to drive in-store traffic.

Ubiquity is one virtue of mobile, of course; users are likely to have their phones available whether they’re home or out in the world. So making it easy to find a nearby outlet for something you’re already interested in buying or browsing can make a campaign that much more effective. In this case, Geipel says, the mobile store locator saw heavy use—one indication the message was reaching an audience who were already heavily in-market.

(Of course, ZIP codes only work when you know them. Notifying customers of nearby stores when they’re off their home turf and may not know the ZIP code they’re in will have to wait until GPS phones are more plentiful—and may require a specific opt-in even then.)

What about metrics? Qwasi offers the standard measurements associated with a Web site, of course. In terms of measuring the effect of SMS, it can keep track of the delivery rate to the carrier networks and the number of “unsubscribes” received; and since mobile churn is a fact of life, the carriers report on the number of recipients who have moved over to other networks since opting in to messaging.

Unlike e-mail, SMS currently does not offer a technology to track the message open rate. But Geipel points to research studies that suggest as many as 80% of recipients open the text messages they receive—and since many mobile users set a tone for incoming texts, many open those messages almost as they come in.

“Depending on the network, the bulk of the text message may show up in a preview pane without the user doing anything,” he says. “That tends to increase the likelihood that someone will open a message they’re interested in.”

As of press time, David’s Bridal was not available to discuss the results of the prom campaign. That often happens as we swing into summer vacation. But I’ll try to pursue the issue with them and get a picture of what impact one well integrated push on handsets had on their prom business.

And of course, once you’ve gotten those senior girls to sign up for mobile content centered on their proms, you’re able to anticipate that a certain number will be looking for other formal dresses– maybe even a lacy white one– in the near future. So the job for David’s Bridal will now be to keep enough of those opt-ins engaged for a stretch of time.

Or at least from prom through graduation. Sure enough, the main David’s Bridal site now features a link to dresses for graduation celebrations.

I’ve just received congratulations on my successful high school graduation and been asked to share my memories of the senior prom. It’s a bit hard to think myself back to those days—to give a hint, the song for the graduating class of Manhasset High was that new hit “Bridge over Troubled Water”—but for the folks at David’s Bridal, I’ll try.

Of course, I’m probably not the target for their recent mobile marketing campaign built around high school prom-goers. I simply signed into the marketing initiative in early May because it struck me as a well integrated, easily understood campaign that promised some benefits to the user while raising awareness and driving traffic for the company’s Web site and its 300 retail shops—exactly what mobile seems to be able to do well, and quickly.

Basically, girls thinking about the prom as far back as last February were targeted with print ads that induced them to text the keyword “PROM” to a short code to get content on their cell phones.

But that content went beyond a simple brand awareness message about David’s gown inventory. Recipients were asked to connect via their phones to a mobile Web site, http://m.davidsprom.com, and to vote for their favorite among five prom dress styles, from classic and dramatic to exotic and fashionista. Participants whose phones couldn’t connect to the Internet were able to respond to the e-mail and get the pictures sent to them directly.

Asking users to choose among several options accomplished a few goals, according to David Geipel, CEO of Qwasi, the mobile marketing platform that managed both the messaging campaign and the mobile Web site for David’s Bridal. First and foremost, it got users actively involved—always a good thing. Besides making their own choices, they could also forward either the e-mail with the pics or the mobile Web itself site to their friends.

In addition, the results of the voting gave David’s some early-season merchandising insight about what styles and categories were likely to be popular once buying began.

“David’s Bridal was able to gain access to insight that would not otherwise have been available until they were in the middle of the season,” Geipel says. “They very successfully polled the tastes of their customers going into the season. That gives them the ability to react and confirm their marketing mix.”

(Just to relieve the suspense, prom “classic” was the big style winner by far. I didn’t vote, since my own prom choice—a chocolate brown tux with flared pants and lapels the size of the tailfins on a ’59 Cadillac—wasn’t an option.)

Qwasi was confident that mobile marketing in general would be an effective approach to the target audience of girls 13 to 17, but the provider wanted to make sure that the campaign’s impact would be felt to the fullest extent and in the easiest way for the consumer. That’s why it provided both an SMS option and a mobile Web site.

“Teenagers all text—that’s what they do,” Geipel says. “Research shows the average teen sends out over 1,800 text messages a month, compared to about 500 a month for the general population. But we had to allow for different messaging plans and accommodate both teens who could accept picture messaging on their phones, because that’s often an option or a service upgrade, and those who didn’t. We let those users click to the WAP [wireless application protocol] site to view the styles.

That kind of flexible approach is key to designing a strong mobile experience. Marketers have to be prepared to launch a broad campaign that gives the best possible experience over a range of phones with differences from screen sizes to functionalities. And they shouldn’t make too many assumptions about how their campaign will look at the other end of the receiver.

For example, the iPhone is one of the most popular handsets among the teen demographic, with a 24% intent to buy in the next six months, Geipel points out that right now iPhones can’t accept multimedia messages, a/k/a picture messaging. That function should come with a software update later this summer. But for now, simply assuming that you’re sending your campaign to a lot of high-end phones still requires some extra spadework to produce a high-end experience for the user.

That was one reason behind providing a specific mobile site for the campaign. David’s Bridal also had a prom-centric standard Web site and in fact promoted sign-ups for the mobile campaign at that site starting in late February. And of course iPhone users could reach that site without issues. But a full-featured Web site like that would take a long time to download to even a smartphone and might not work properly or easily once it did.

So Qwasi built out a David’s Prom site optimized specifically for mobile. If you’ve never seen one of these laid out, they look like a string of separate panes in a line rather than the usual single Web page with a number of modules. Time was, each pane would have to include navigation tools so users could click to the next one, usually positioned at the top so they were accessible even if the bottom was cut off by the phone’s frame. Now enough people have either scroll wheels on their phones or touch screen capabilities that those tools don’t need to take up valuable screen real estate.

Mobile sites also offer stripped-down functionality compared to a standard Web site. For example, the David’s Prom mobile site didn’t offer the video clips, product search or e-commerce options available at the main Web site: just photos of the dresses in the five categories, a link within each category to see a second dress sample, the DBprom.com URL and the “Forward to a Friend” link.

Qwasi did make sure to provide one function at the mobile site, however: a store finder that let users get locations and store operating hours by inputting their ZIP codes. Mobile users who responded to the gown vote via SMS were also sent a thank-you note that allowed them to text in their ZIP to get the address of the nearest David’s Bridal—making the mobile channel to drive in-store traffic.

Ubiquity is one virtue of mobile, of course; users are likely to have their phones available whether they’re home or out in the world. So making it easy to find a nearby outlet for something you’re already interested in buying or browsing can make a campaign that much more effective. In this case, Geipel says, the mobile store locator saw heavy use—one indication the message was reaching an audience who were already heavily in-market.

(Of course, ZIP codes only work when you know them. Notifying customers of nearby stores when they’re off their home turf and may not know the ZIP code they’re in will have to wait until GPS phones are more plentiful—and may require a specific opt-in even then.)

What about metrics? Qwasi offers the standard measurements associated with a Web site, of course. In terms of measuring the effect of SMS, it can keep track of the delivery rate to the carrier networks and the number of “unsubscribes” received; and since mobile churn is a fact of life, the carriers report on the number of recipients who have moved over to other networks since opting in to messaging.

Unlike e-mail, SMS currently does not offer a technology to track the message open rate. But Geipel points to research studies that suggest as many as 80% of recipients open the text messages they receive—and since many mobile users set a tone for incoming texts, many open those messages almost as they come in.

“Depending on the network, the bulk of the text message may show up in a preview pane without the user doing anything,” he says. “That tends to increase the likelihood that someone will open a message they’re interested in.”

As of press time, David’s Bridal was not available to discuss the results of the prom campaign. That often happens as we swing into summer vacation. But I’ll try to pursue the issue with them and get a picture of what impact one well integrated push on handsets had on their prom business.

And of course, once you’ve gotten those senior girls to sign up for mobile content centered on their proms, you’re able to anticipate that a certain number will be looking for other formal dresses– maybe even a lacy white one– in the near future. So the job for David’s Bridal will now be to keep enough of those opt-ins engaged for a stretch of time.

Or at least from prom through graduation. Sure enough, the main David’s Bridal site now features a link to dresses for graduation celebrations.