Much I’ve written about it, but never been confronted with it in reality. Last Monday was my first time. I became an eye-witness of a mobile marketing campaign. To be exact, I myself was the recipient of a mobile coupon.

I’m sitting guilelessly, alternately listening and snoozing, in a lecture at university. Suddenly my mobile phone is vibrating. I expect a friend and open the received message. But the sender is neither friend, nor sister, nor mum. It’s a well-known pizza fast food restaurant chain. “Sweet fun at ****. With every purchase and this SMS you’ll get Mini Donuts for free as dessert (…).”

Aha. If I wanted to eat pizza today, this locality maybe would have developed into my pizzeria of choice. But unfortunately I’m not walking through the city center right now, but sitting in an auditorium on the campus and I don’t have in mind to go to the center. Even there’s a free dessert waiting for me there. My next thought is: from where do they have my mobile phone number after all? I can’t remember having filled in a form for this restaurant.

So the message is promptly landing on the digital heap of rubbish. Lost effort and dough for the company that is popular for caloric cheese crust. In which way I’d have behaved when I had really been to the city center? For sure I’d have been upset and looked around and asked myself why this message just now had arrived on my mobile phone. An ordinary standard message without any nick-nack, no Bluetooth transfer. I’d have felt watched and strange. And given the pizza baker a wide berth. Maybe, maybe not, but I definitely wouldn’t have redeemed the coupon as a spontaneous act of defiance. Because the pizza chain shouldn’t have my mobile phone number.

I feel by myself, about what I had always only written: permission is the be-all and end-all in Mobile Marketing. If I had a “coupon newsletter” of all restaurants in Mainz, I’d have felt this message as something positive. But in this way I’m angry and indignant at the pizza chain. Hence, as an advertising effort this unwanted coupon was a lead balloon. One thing all companies should realize: who doesn’t want to ruin the own image, should offer something to the customer that he can fetch actively. In no case force something on somebody, but rely on the known pull procedure. Mobile phone spam is death branding.

Have you ever received a message from the cheese crust baker? What was it like? In which way did you react to it? Were you happy, annoyed or even indignant? I’d really like to know!