Paul Dolegowski: We launched our first app six years ago. Originally, we ran text-to-screen campaigns to generate awareness. Then we did text messaging and voting applications. For example, we were involved in NASCAR. We would give people an option to select one of three paint schemes for the car. We’d use whichever paint got the most votes.

We have also worked with retailers to provide deeper information on our brands. We may offer a text-message-in for cocktail recipes or party tips. This could be highlighted on a product tag, either ours or the retailers’. We do mobile ticketing applications for some brands, have pages on social media sites, and a brand could sponsor music venues.

eMarketer: How do you make people aware of your mobile apps?

“People have to become aware of the mobile app, which is difficult to do if the app is a standalone.”

Mr. Dolegowski: Digital is an incredibly strong vehicle to preach integration. People have to become aware of the mobile app, which is difficult to do if the app is a standalone. We e-mail our database, use search marketing campaigns and generate some kind of awareness via TV or print to drive traffic.

With one brand, for example, we spent a considerable amount of money on Facebook as well as on other digital media placements to drive traffic.

eMarketer: How do you track the performance of mobile apps?

Mr. Dolegowski: I can say something generated 5,000 text messages, but what does that mean? Digital marketing must demonstrate how you’re helping me build the brand. If I can’t argue that it’s increasing consumer adoption, then you have to start questioning where you’re making investments.

We’re only in the data-gathering phase. We do a good job at collecting data and reporting on it. We need to evolve to the next step. Let’s put our analysis horsepower here and find out how effective this strategy or tactic was. Should we extend it to other brands? Should we extend it to other aspects of the consumer? Should we invest more dollars, run the campaign longer?

eMarketer: What is your next step in mobile?

“In the next phase, we need to know how to turn that into insights and data for brand leadership.”

Mr. Dolegowski: We need to determine impact. We do a really good job counting how many people go to the Website, the page views and our numbers of unique visitors. In the next phase, we need to know how to turn that into insights and data for brand leadership and how it affects people at the point of consideration and purchase. That’s the kind of horsepower we want.

eMarketer: After doing mobile for six years, do you think you are ahead of other consumer products companies with your multipronged approach?

Mr. Dolegowski: We are very progressive in our thinking from an implementation standpoint, but we’re not there yet. We don’t have a ton of datapoints that we can point to on CPG and their digital activities, although a lot of examples are being held up from a P&G standpoint.

Many consumer apps are standalones. From a B-F standpoint, we should be beyond that. We have learned from our experiences that when you integrate CRM programs, you build brand ambassadorships. You get a much bigger bang for your buck. We are really trying to push the envelope around using mobile globally.

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