MippinNow the Whole Wide World is Mippin It!
October 2007

Project Mippin is a new chapter for Refresh Mobile, the company who developed snack sized mobile news digests in the form of Mobizines . They needed support in generating attention and creating early adopters for the company’s new mobile internet service Mippin, a window to the mobile internet, helping better explore content with mobile devices, and allowing people to access favourite websites by tapping into existing RSS feeds.

Outreach The Hai Media Group, teaming up with mobile marketing expert Helen Keegan, organized a momentum-building launch strategy that would get the world excited about Mippin, all within a short period of time. Following a friends and family beta test period, they wanted to involve bloggers, media and influencers during an alpha testing phase for their public debut.

We arranged for a sneak preview day, and invited bloggers who were interested in both mobile and internet technology news to stop by The Soho Hotel in London, and receive an early demonstration of the service, prior to Mippin’s worldwide debut on 11th October 2007. Mippin’s creators also visited and presented at two key mobile industry events prior to going live. Other interest was generated early by:

• Offering in-person demonstrations for anyone who could not attend the sneak preview event in the days leading up to launch-time.
• Creating a Flickr.com group for Mippin and posting collateral that any blogger or member of the media was free to use.
• Inviting a professional photographer to take pictures throughout the sneak preview day, and inviting all of the Mippin team to take pictures of people Mippin it! And adding these candid shots to the Flickr.com image pool.

Results

The excitement generated during the brief sneak preview opportunity resulted in early pre-launch coverage which funnelled into greater awareness and usage at launch time. Most exciting was witnessing the number of Twitter notices that people mentioned surrounding Mippin’s launch and reading numerous blog posts that devoted detailed attention to reviewing the service positively. Highlights of coverage included a podcast with Mippin’s developer broadcast on AllAboutSymbian.com, reaching more than 2M listeners.

Refresh Mobile reports that Mippin’s usage has been very high, and coverage has exceeded their expectations. Milestone statistics will be released for Mippin in 2008.