The goal of the Michaels Earth Day campaign is to plant 10,000 new trees in North America. In addition to SMS, Michaels has also created other mobile-specific inspiration content to help consumers whip up their own themed crafts.

“SMS was the ideal platform for the Michaels Earth Day Campaign because it’s easily accessible and a paperless way for us to communicate with our customers,” said Anthony Price, vice president of digital marketing and relationship management at Michaels, Irving, TX.

“By signing up for Michaels text alerts, customers can help us plant a forest and go green by receiving paperless alerts,” he said.

Mobile inspiration
The Earth Day initiative is coordinated through the American Forests Global ReLeaf program.

Consumers can text the keyword RELEAF to the short code 273283 to participate in the campaign. For each user that opts-in to receive SMS alerts from Michaels, the company will donate to the Global ReLeaf program.

Once consumers send the text message, they are given the option to continue to receive messages from Michaels.  By opting in to the program, consumers sign-up to receive up to eight alerts per month.

Michaels is also incorporating mobile into Earth Day content to inspire consumers to create their own eco-friendly crafts.

For example, there is an Earth Day-themed section in the Michaels iPhone application where users can view a list of projects. Each project includes a list of materials, instructions and reviews from others.

Consumers can then save the project in the app or share content via Facebook, Twitter, email or SMS.

The app also includes a call-to-action for the SMS portion of the campaign.

The Michaels iPhone app

Mobile strategy
Mobile has played a strong role in how Michaels has marketed its products in the past.

For example, the retailer rolled out a mobile site, QR codes and SMS in 2011 to drive in-store traffic and online sales (see story).

Additionally, Mr. Price spoke at Mobile Marketer’s Mobile Marketing Summit 2011 about the role that SMS and QR codes were expected to play in holiday shopping (see story).

“Michaels customers are looking for project inspiration and items that are on sale when using their mobile device,” Mr. Price said.

“The Michaels app is updated daily with new project ideas and inspiration and the ad is updated every week with new deals,” he said.

“At Michaels we’re all about inspiration, but it’s also important for us to provide our customer with on-the-go solutions. Mobile is an accessible and convenient way for our customers to interact with our brand.”

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York