What kind of campaign should you run? Should you do SMS blasts or should you develop a more in-depth engaging mobile campaign? Here is what Oberto did.

Oberto and its vendor developed an integrated campaign strategy by using mobile, online and in-store POS and on-pack stickers.“To engage consumers with the brand, we built the Ultimate Alpha Zone, where visitors can experience the brand online, in-store and via their mobile device”.“The campaign’s objectives are to increase consumer awareness of the Oberto brand and its Eat Like An Alpha campaign, drive increases in market share and drive sales velocity.”

Oberto Sausage company ran a campaign in 2008 that implemented mobile to push their beef jerky sales. Their target consumer for the campaign was young, “leader of the pack” males who love a more sophisticated beef jerky.

This from Adweek in 2008:

“Still, Ennis credited the Jack Links advertising for “talking to regular Joes” and “stimulating the category.” He said that competitor enjoys an estimated 35 percent market share lead, compared to Oberto’s 12 percent. Despite the No. 1 venue for sales occurring in convenience stores typically attached to gas stations, the category is still growing within those outlets, despite fewer customers due to high gas prices.

Because Oberto targets a “more upscale, ex-urban, suburban male, not the traditional camper/fisher/hiker type,” the spots are often set in an office environment, like in one commercial where a Japanese executive is lauded by an acolyte before subserviently suggesting that he’d accompany the executive to the bathroom. “Woodsiness,” says ecd Curt Detweiler, “is a self-imposed limit on the category. We’re opening it up to an afternoon outing, the workplace, to an exchange as casual as a pack of gum.”

They ran their TV spots on male oriented cable channels like ESPN, Spike and Comedy Central. Furthermore, they added a mobile component to the campaign to increase interactivity.

The company created the site http://www.ultimatealphazone.com/index.html, in order to further engage the consumer. In the site, the consumer could play games, sign up for mobile sweepstakes, and taunt their male friends by texting them funny messages through the site. Other mobile components that were available were wallpaper and ring tone downloads.

“Our target guy is regularly plugged into what’s happening in the world around him,” said Ryan Post, senior brand manager for Oberto, Kent, WA. “He uses mobile technology to maintain a healthy balance between family, friends, sports, exercise, culture and his career, getting the info he wants when he wants it.

“From checking his mail on his mobile phone when leaving the gym in the morning to looking up sports scores and texting his friends to find out where happy hour is, an ‘alpha’ manages his life on the go,” he said. “We saw mobile marketing as an integral part of our latest campaign because it connects to the daily lives of our customers.

“Plus, Oberto is all about having fun, so the ability to playfully taunt ‘sidekicks’ on the go is right in line with our campaign and a fun, engaging way to let guys know what we are all about.”

The promotion allowed consumers to register for sweepstakes and send taunt calls via IVR and the Internet to their friends, calling them “sidekicks.”

The mobile two-way “Taunt Call” IVR campaign lets consumers send unapologetic claims to their friends, and “sidekicks” can send props or insults—“smacks”—back to their friends to continue the conversation.

Oberto’s in-store call-to-action at the point of sale reads “Text / Taunt / Win, text ‘Alpha’ to 433339 for a chance to win and taunt a friend.”

Oberto claims that it has received more than a quarter of a million sweepstakes entries to date, and many of those consumers opted in to the brand’s SMS database.