One of Little Caesars' franchisees ran a mobile sweepstakes campaign to build a database of names for future marketing.

The Little Caesars franchisee tapped Ping Mobile to power the campaign. The franchisee ran television ads on the local Cox Media cable network, asking people to text CRAZY to 269411 to enter for a chance to win a Nintendo Wii and for a free Crazy Bread mobile coupon.

"The strategy for Little Caesars' franchisee's campaign was to push out its promotional offer through a new advertising medium -- mobile," said Shira Simmonds, president of Ping Mobile, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. "They incorporated mobile into their overall marketing campaign.

"The franchisee wanted to see if a mobile push would make a difference to the results of its traditional marketing efforts -- and the trackability of mobile enabled this," She said.

"The franchisee also wanted to reach out to people during the holidays -- a notoriously expensive season, especially with the current economic downturn -- and find a way to drive them to its restaurants."

Viewers who texted in to enter the sweepstakes received a message back that said, "Success! U R entered 2 Win the Nintendo Wii! Show this msg @ Little Caesars 4 FREE Crazy Bread when U buy a 3 Meat Treat Pizza!"

The second message sent to viewers said, "Reply YES for 10 more entries 2Win & 2 get Xclusives from Cox + Little Caesars! Mx4msgs/mo. std txt rts aply. Reply YES Now!"

The last message users received said, "Success! U have 11 entries 2 Win & R sbscbd! 2quit txt STOP@any time. Look 4 More Chances 2 Win on Ur Mobile Phone!"

Mobile was suitable for the Little Caesars franchisee because its target demographic is families.

Mobile allowed the store to reach out to people of all ages.

The mobile coupon component of this campaign was something that would be appealing to everyone. People always want something for free, especially "green-minded" individuals who could take advantage of the paperless coupon.

Additionally, it gave people an opportunity to get something for free during the holiday season.

This isn't the first time a pizza shop has done something mobile.

Pizza Hut Inc. was the first pizza chain to offer both text messaging and mobile Web ordering options on a nationwide basis.

The Dallas-based company's "Total Mobile Access" service adds a mobile component to online ordering, which is already one of the most popular segments of Pizza Hut's business. The news came less than two weeks after rival Papa John's announced a texting promotion for the Super Bowl , a major pizza-consuming occasion ( see story ).

"The sweepstakes prize appealed to the teen/young adult demographic which is ideal for a mobile campaign and the fact that entry into the sweepstakes was included in the initial message prompted more people to be entered to win 10 more times," Ms. Simmonds said.

"The results were staggering," she said. "In an 18 day period, the double opt-in rate was nearly 62 percent."