Kraft Foods ran a mobile campaign in Germany this January to promote the launch of a new instant coffee brand called Jacobs.

The campaign was integrated with traditional media and let consumers request samples and order products from their handsets. Kraft spent a lot of time defining the target audience for this campaign in order to minimize the waste of resources and the costs required to reach the consumers.

"The success of the campaign, especially in the mobile sector, exceeded our expectations," said Marco Gottschalk, marketing manager at Kraft, Germany. "The mobile phone has hereby established itself as promotional tool."

The campaign placed control directly with the consumer.

First, the print and online ads prompted consumers to send a text message to a short code to request a sample.

Promoting the mobile campaign through traditional media provided users with a direct opportunity to interact with the brand and request a sample via their mobile, only if they were interested in the product.

German mobile marketing firm YOC helped Kraft with the campaign.

YOC provided a community of individuals, who were considered as part of the target audience.

This group of targeted opted-in mobile subscribers received text messages from Kraft encouraging them to text their details to a short code to receive a product sample.

Through this, Kraft was able to build a database of name for future marketing.

Consumers who participated by texting in were then given a WAP link to the sampling portal. This is where users were asked to key in their personal details in order to receive the sample.

Along with the traditional media, banners ads were placed on the Vodafone portal.

The Kraft Jacob campaign received almost 500,000 requests for samples. Also, almost 450,000 users registered with Jacobs throughout the campaign.

More than 80,000 users registered their details to be used for future marketing.

Additionally, 0.4 percent of users who saw the television commercials ordered a product sample via their mobile phone.

This campaign wasn't Kraft's first foray into mobile.

Kraft launched an iPhone and iPod touch application that offers consumers access to food and meal-planning ideas.

Called the iFood Assistant, the app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store for installation on any iPhone or iPod touch. The app targets consumers on the go looking for recipes.

Kraft has also ran ads on the Nokia Media Network.