Sandwich Maker Launches Trial Mobile Marketing Run

In Buffalo, where wings and beef on weck reign supreme, sandwich maker Subway will launch a mobile marketing effort today. Franchise locations owned by QSR Brands will push real-time alerts and discounts to customers’ cell phones using MobileLime’s technology.

Buffalo-area consumers will be able to register for free for The Subway Mobile Alerts Club at the 12 participating Subway shops, or by sending a text message to the campaign-affiliated number. Those who opt-in to the program will receive coupons, special offers and event notifications via their mobile phones.

The restaurant company aims to achieve a competitive advantage over other quick-fix food establishments around the Nickel City, hoping to gain more than the standard 2-3 percent response rates garnered through other promotions. QSR Brands will have access to the database of people who have signed up.

The mobile marketing firm has worked with other food purveyors to enable mobile marketing campaigns, including Chicago’s grocery chain Potash Bros. Markets, and Cape Cod’s Ring Bros. Marketplace.

MobileLime competes with mobile marketing platform companies including ipsh, Verisign’s m-Qube, Motricity’s GoldPocket Wireless and branded mobile content distributor AvantGo.

According to mobile infrastructure software provider Airwide Solutions, 89 percent of brands will use text and multimedia mobile marketing by 2008, and in five years 52 percent of brands plan to spend between 5 and 25 percent of their total marketing budgets on mobile efforts.