Crunch Pak uses Times Square billboard for back-to-school offer

Crunch Pak is offering a back-to-school promotion via its electronic billboard in New York City’s Times Square.

In a campaign that started August 18, the billboard will carry a message asking consumers to “text the word APPLES to the number 65047” for a special offer. When consumers do so, they will be sent a link to a coupon for $1 off any size package of Crunch Pak sliced apples.

“It’s a lot to communicate in 15 seconds,” said Tony Freytag, senior vice president of sales and marketing. “We are excited to see the response and we’re fairly certain no other produce company will have this type of back to school promotion this fall.”

Crunch Pak is giving the digital coupon a unique number in order to track the redemption rate and measure how many people view and respond to messages on the billboard.

Marcos Menendez, CEO of Momares, the company managing the electronic coupon for Crunch Pak, said mobile coupons perform very well in terms of redemption.

“Mobile sweepstakes, contests and coupons are the most effective way to build a database of mobile customers,” Menendez said. “Our mobile coupon campaigns average 10 percent redemption rates; text (SMS) coupon delivery rates are 95 percent.

“Mobile coupon program customer retention rates are 98 percent which means there is a very low unsubscribe, opt-out rate. Mobile coupons are stored in the customer’s mobile phone and are carried with the customer to the store. Coupon code can be offered for redemption or a barcode mobile coupon shown for scanning.”

This latest promotion is part of a yearlong marketing campaign that puts Crunch Pak’s fresh apple product portfolio on display on a gigantic electronic billboard in the heart of New York City’s world-famous Times Square.

The billboard, located at 1541 Broadway, is the only bi-directional screen in Times Square with screens that measure 10-feet by 90-feet. The first Crunch Pak electronic ad started running in May and will appear more than 17,000 times over the agreement period. On August 22, Crunch Pak will be sampling its fresh product under the billboard for five hours in order to generate further consumer awareness for the company and its portfolio of products.