ST. LOUIS (Aug. 05, 2010) -- After the tremendous success of its HD plasma TV giveaways, American Speed Association Midwest Tour is gearing up to go full speed into text message marketing with mobile marketing provider MESSAGEbuzz Inc.

The American Speed Association® Kwik Trip Midwest Tour presented by ECHO Outdoor Power Equipment and grandstay.net organizes car races across the Upper Midwest and embarked earlier this year on a phone text messaging campaign to encourage fans to attend races. Fans were invited to text into the tour for a chance to win a 42-inch, flat-screen plasma HD TV (a $500 value donated by sponsor Best Buy) or tickets to an upcoming ASA Midwest Tour race.

Tour officials were delighted at the response.

“Our Text to Win campaign produced a record number of visits to our website, huge text responses from fans, built tremendous goodwill and engaged our customers in a new way that they enjoyed,” said Stephen J. Einhaus, vice president of ASA Midwest Tour, headquartered in Burlington, Wis.

Through radio and TV advertising, fans were urged to send a text message for a chance to win. Those messages enabled the tour to add 1,000 names per race to its database. With mobile marketing, the tour is able to communicate directly to its customers in a way it never has before. That includes alerting them to rain and weather updates that could make the difference in race day attendance.

“I believe that our texting program will reduce our advertising budget by 30 percent each year over the next three years,” Einhaus said. “It’s our objective to manage our entire event advertising announcements directly through MESSAGEbuzz. It’s just a smart thing to do for our company rather than spending $7,500 an event on touch-and-go results.”

Einhaus estimates that since 90 percent of the fans attending ASAMidwest races have cell phones, texting will become a major marketing factor for his tour as well other tours.

“ASA Midwest Tour deserves great credit for trying out this new form of marketing and for using it in a creative way that is producing excellent results,” said Steve Kelley, CEO of MESSAGEbuzz, which operates a self-service and custom mobile marketing service for companies that want to use mobile marketing. “Mobile marketing is direct to the customer, targeted, welcome because the customer has signed up to receive messages and engaging--the best marketing method around.”

ASA Midwest Tour plans to expand its mobile marketing campaign next with games and giveaways before, during and after races.

“Our fans are telling us they really like this, and from a business perspective, it is very economical. We can communicate directly to 4,000 customers for less than a steak dinner for two. I call that real value,” Einhaus said.

He also praised the assistance MESSAGEbuzz provided his company.

“Steve Kelley at MESSAGEbuzz has been a lot of fun to work with. His hands-on support has helped guide us along and helped us focus on the ways we can build this program into something very successful,” Einhaus said.

ABOUT MESSAGEbuzz.com
MESSAGEbuzz provides organizations with a one-stop shop for mobile solutions. MESSAGEbuzz’s experience, technical capabilities, infrastructure and superior customer service provides clients with innovative tools that are easy to incorporate into any organization. For more information on communicating with customers, staff or press via mobile phones, please visit www.messagebuzz.com or call Steve Kelley at 888-900-2899 x27.

ABOUT ASA Midwest Tour
To learn more about the American Speed Association® Kwik Trip Midwest Tour presented by ECHO Outdoor Power Equipment and GrandStay Residential Suites Hotels and Crossings by GrandStay Inn & Suites, log on to www.asamidwesttour.com or call the ASA Midwest Tour office at (262) 514-3880 or e-mail Tim Olson at tim@asamidwesttour.com or Steve Einhaus at steve@asamidwesttour.com.

If you would like to learn more about the ASAMT series sponsors, please visit their websites: Kwik Trip, Inc. (www.kwiktrip.com), ECHO Outdoor Power Equipment (www.echo-usa.com), and GrandStay Residential Suites Hotels and Crossings by GrandStay Inn & Suites (www.grandstay.net).

To learn more about the Midwest Sportsman Tour log on to www.asamidwestsportsman.com.

To learn more about the ASA Midwest Truck Tour log on to www.asamidwesttrucks.com.

To learn more about the Daytona Beach, Florida-based Racing Speed Associates or the American Speed Association® Racing Member Track program, call (386) 258-2221 or send an e-mail to info@asa-racing.com. For news and information from racetracks and regional tours involved in the American Speed Association®, visit www.asaracing.com.

ASA®, ASA Racing®, and American Speed Association® are registered trademarks of Racing Speed Associates, LLC. ASA International, LLC or Racing Speed Associates, LLC are not related to or affiliated with the ASA Late Model Series.