Smirnoff plans long-term investment in mobile

Smirnoff has revealed plans to heavily expand its investment in mobile following positive results from its current site.

The alcohol brand's mobile site, which was built by AKQA Mobile, went live in October 2007. It has since been visited by 90,000 unique users and has amassed a database of around 2,000, figures that Smirnoff said were better than expected.

Plans for the expanded site are believed to include the opportunity to upload photos and videos and share them with friends and other users. Visitors are currently encouraged to enter a 'Win the journey' competition that ties in with an above-the-line campaign based around Smirnoff founder Vladimir Smirnov.

More cross-platform promotional activity is expected following the extra investment.

Diageo-owned Smirnoff said it's writing the mobile site into its marketing budget and has earmarked it for long-term investment.

Marketing manager Chris Lock said mobile was now central to the brand's digital marketing platform.

"It was new territory that we thought might do well," he said. "We spent enough for it to show up but didn't commit too heavily. But the potential is there and mobile will now feature heavily in our plans."

Lock added that it was important for Smirnoff to lead the way for alcohol brands creatively. He added that having a strong mobile presence also gives more control over direct-to-consumer promotions, saying mobile was a good medium for marketing because Smirnoff's young target audience always carry their phones.

Diageo also launched a mobile site for Guinness in March, which benefited from Smirnoff's previous experience with mobile (NMA 20.03.08).

www.nma.co.uk Alex Farber 2008-04-17