Sugar Mama signs new advertisers, updates uptake

Virgin Mobile USA L.L.C. said that its users have earned more than 9 million minutes of free airtime since the mobile virtual network operator instituted its Sugar Mama program, which offers customers the chance to receive calling minutes in exchange for watching advertisements.
The opt-in marketing initiative launched a year ago with advertisers such as Pepsi, Xbox and truth, the American Legacy Foundation’s national youth anti-smoking campaign. New advertising partners include Levi Strauss Signature, New Balance, Nintendo, Rimmel, Subway, Sunsilk, the U.S. Navy, Sony/BMG Entertainment’s Jive Records, Showtime Networks, Sony Playstation and Sony Pictures (Columbia/Tri-Star). Virgin Mobile USA has added new features to experience, including the ability to forward an ad spot to a friend and save their 10 favorite spots, as well as additional video content on customer education and interviews with popular bands.
Sugar Mama is not a passive ad-watching experience; after viewing the ad clips online, users are briefly quizzed about the content, allowing advertisers to “test if advertising messages are resonating with potential customers and, more importantly, if these viewers like the experience and the product enough to consider a future purchase,” according to Virgin Mobile USA. Customers can also choose to complete online surveys or receive branded text messages.
Howard Handler, chief marketing officer for the MVNO, said that the average click-through rate for Sugar Mama is 5.5%. That figure significantly outpaces the average Internet advertising click-through rate of less than 1%.
“The most successful campaigns managed click-through rates of up to 21.1%,” Handler added.
Tony Pace, chief marketing officer of the Subway Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust, said in a statement that his group chose to partner with Virgin Mobile because they “like the innovation behind Sugar Mama and it is a natural for reaching the digitally savvy consumer.”
George DeBolt, VP of media for Showtime Networks, said that when the company launched its series The Tudors, it chose to include Sugar Mama in its advertising mix “because it is an innovative, effective way to give a taste of the series to a really desirable demographic. Not only does Sugar Mama help us drive awareness, it also lets us interact with those who see the spots to get a sense of how they’re reacting to them.”