JupiterResearch: Cheated on Coke Credits on my Cell Phone

In her never ending quest to try out mobile marketing initiatives, Julie Ask posts about her latest effort at the Jupiter Analyst Weblogs. Unfortunately, it seems like mobile marketers are shooting themselves in the foot with there current attempts. Ask leads off with:

Ah, mobile marketing ... I'm really trying to like it and give it a boost. Campaigns like the one being run by Coca Cola are making it hard right now. It seems as though folks are still operating under the "customer expectations are low so we don't have to execute that well right now in the mobile medium."

Here are her likes of the campaign:

• Integrated with online experience to collect consumer information, preferences, etc.
• Frequent touch points - each soda offers an opportunity to interact with the brand
• Low hurdles for point redemption for prizes

And here is what she thinks is not working from the standpoint of mobile marketing:

• Only 3/5 bottle cap codes that I attempt to redeem through text messaging are actually accepted. Others are labeled as "duplicates" or "invalid." ??? I'm reading them the best I can from the cap - not so easy. Not sure why they are being so hard on me for three points here and there.
• I set up an extensive profile online. They know my age, gender, where I live, and that my interests include sports, travel, diet coke and entertainment. About a week after setting up the account (or longer), I received a "generic welcome to coke rewards" email. Not impressive given how much they know about me.
• Within my profile, there is not consistent information about my mobile phone number and carrier - one portion of my profile says they have no idea what my phone number/carrier is and another portion of the website (my profile) has the information. I've registered my cell phone twice now by sending a code to a short code. In the mean time, I've signed up for mobile alerts/coupons/offers, but have received nothing. Are they waiting until I've completely forgotten that I've signed up?

She concludes that there is "a lot of energy in the right directions and good ideas - just waiting to see what they eventually do with it."

This seems to be another example of one of my major pet peeves with things that are both mobile and non-mobile related. A lot of effort seems to go into the "strategy" but very little focus is on executing the tactics properly. ..