As over 3.5 billion mobile technology users flood the market, the industry of mobile marketing skyrockets alongside, making for one of the fastest growing advertising mediums today. Tech research firm eMarketer approximates that mobile ad spend will increase 400% by 2016, from $8.4 billion to $37 billion. Accordingly, mobile marketing campaigns will strive for consumers’ attention, competing with a growing number of companies using mobile marketing to develop their brands. The only way marketers can hope to keep up is by getting tech-savvy and creative! Developing distinctive, entertaining, and compelling user experiences is key in devising a successful mobile marketing strategy, particularly if the company hopes the campaigns to go viral. Further, marketers must stay abreast of the latest mobile targeting capabilities, including behavioral and location-based targeting. The following use cases highlight three of the more successful mobile marketing campaigns used recently to build brand awareness.
LG Goes Musical with Mobile
After debuting its L-series handset, technology company LG implemented a twitter-based mobile game in order to engage with the Millennial female demographic. LG promoted a concert at the LG Arena headlined by the popular band One Direction, secretly placing 25 pairs of VIP tickets each in a distinct location. As fans tweeted #lgtickethunter to LG’s short code, the map on LG’s site zoomed in closer to each location—for every tweet LG collected, the map zoomed in tighter and eventually uncovered the locations of the hidden tickets. LG’s objective was to generate hype around the promotion as well as to improve brand loyalty among a younger demographic. Over a period of five days, LG collected 58,000 texts, with 40,000 page views to the 1-page site and 9420 unique visitors. Subsequently, 28% more L-series phones were purchased during the promotion.
Key takeaway: The more socially relevant the campaign is to your target demographic, the better! Understand what’s trending for your particular market, and develop your marketing strategy accordingly.
Ikea’s New & Improved Digital Catalog
In the hopes of reinventing one of the most successful direct marketing brochures of all time, IKEA turned its world-famous paper catalog into an interactive mobile app, allowing customers to see hidden content by scanning certain pages of the catalog with their mobile device. This improved user experience made IKEA’s app the highest downloaded marketing app for a brand in 2012. At 6.2 million downloads, views of IKEA’s catalog grew more than 300% from the year before, and shoppers spent an average of eight minutes in the app compared to only three minutes in the paper catalog.
Key Takeaway: Consumers today are tech-savvy and expecting to see brands get innovative. Reinvigorate your old marketing collateral by integrating new digital technologies.
Quiznos Targets Consumer Behavior
Thriving in the mobile marketing sphere sometimes takes more than just presenting a compelling user experience; it’s also often about utilizing the latest in mobile technology to target consumers properly. In November 2012, the quick-service sandwich company Quiznos initiated a location-based mobile campaign in the Portland, Oregon area to attract consumers in the near vicinity who were most apt to buy a quick-service sandwich. Instead of simply constraining their targeting by location, Quiznos used behavioral targeting tools to further institute parameters around which consumers had purchased at a comparable quick-service restaurant, such as Subway or Jimmy John’s, within the last month and who were located within three miles of a Quiznos shop at the time the ad was served. Quiznos’ strategy led to almost 3.7 million targeted ad impressions served, resulting in an almost 20 percent increase in coupon redemptions over similar nationwide campaigns that failed to implement behavioral targeting.
Key takeaway: Mobile users are always on the move! Displaying mobile ads that target both their purchasing habits and present location is a fantastic way of motivating direct and speedy action.