Beauty products giant L'Oréal Paris ran an MMS campaign to extend brand awareness around two new products.

The French brand worked with mobile agency Phonevalley to promote the launch of "Combleur Collagène Lèvres" and the new "StudioLine MineralFX aux actifs minéraux" to mobile consumers. To support these two products, Phonevalley built a mobile strategy which focused both on a brand image and recruitment.

"We are delighted to renew our collaboration with L'Oréal Paris, for whom we already built mobile marketing campaigns," said Alexandre Mars, CEO of Phonevalley and head of mobile at Publicis Groupe, Paris, France.

"Their efficiency, as well as the similarity between L'Oréal Paris' target groups and the mobile phone owners population, drove us to recommend these two image and couponing campaigns," he said.

In addition to L'Oréal Paris, Phonevalley also works with clients such as, Kraft Foods, Puma, Coca-Cola and Volvo.

The first L'Oréal Paris campaign was designed for the new "Combleur Collagène Lèvres," a collagen and hydrollic acid lip treatment.

The campaign targeted women ages 35-49 by sending 105,000 French women an MMS messsage with supermodel Linda Evangelista fronting for the brand.

L'Oréal Paris used mobile to promote a coupon offer for the new men's hair-care product, "StudioLine MineralFX aux actifs minéraux."

An MMS was sent to 45,000 men ages 18-35 who had a smartphone.

The MMS displayed Patrick Dempsey, a star from television's "Grey's Anatomy." He invited mobile consumers to connect on the L'Oréal Paris Web site to print a coupon for a discount on any product from the L'Oréal MineralFx range.

This is not the first time that a big brand has turned to the mobile channel to reach consumers with a message.

For example, Phonevalley worked with Puma to keep sailing fans updated about the Puma Ocean Racing Team.

To support Puma communications towards all sailing followers and improve brand awareness, Phonevalley designed the Puma Ocean Race mobile Internet site and SMS alerts (see story).

So why is mobile, particularly SMS and MMS, such an effective way of getting a brand's message to consumers?

"Of mobile phone subscribers, at least 90 to 95 percent have SMS or MMS capability, and as long as the content is relevant, they don't mind receiving it and responding to it," said Matthew Valleskey, head of marketing for mobile services at Neustar, the Sterling, VA-based common short code registry.