Bob Bentz: Keeping Students Up-to-Date by Publishing Textbook in Mobile Marketing

With over 30 years of experience in media, advertising, mobile marketing, internet marketing, and SEO, Bob Bentz started teaching Mobile Marketing at University College in 2014 in the Communication Management program. From working in broadcasting to running an agency, he brings first-hand knowledge of mobile and digital marketing to the classroom.

Bob started working in mobile marketing in 2002 by using SMS texts to promote businesses.  During a business trip to London, he noticed that a big trend there was unique ring tones. He brought the concept back to the US by creating one of the first ringtone sites. As mobile marketing began to evolve, Bob became president of Purplegator, a digital marketing agency with offices in Philadelphia, Toronto, London and Prague.

In 2014 he was teaching Mobile Marketing and started writing supplemental materials for the course as mobile marketing is a constantly evolving field. By the end of the quarter, he had over 100 pages written.  Bob realized he had 1/3 of a textbook done and wanted to complete it. Nine months of hard work later he finished Relevance Raises Response: How to Engage and Acquire with Mobile Marketing.

Bob believes that students feel some credibility with the textbook being written by their instructor, “When they see that their instructor works in the industry all day and then has written the class textbook, I think they believe their investment in the course is a good one.”

Each quarter, students in his Mobile Marketing course create a marketing plan to present at the end of the course as part of their final grade. One student finished three weeks early to pitch her plan to her business to launch their first mobile marketing plan; she was able to get a six-figure budget to start a mobile marketing plan at her company. Talk about applying what you learn!

Bob feels a great reward when students can use the content from his textbook to apply knowledge to their careers. “You can’t justify the hours you put in for the compensation, but when you see a student embrace the class to this extent, it makes it all worthwhile.”

You can find Bob’s book at Amazon, the DU Bookstore, or from his website RelevanceRaisesResponse.com.