Are you trying to figure out how to use mobile marketing to grow your sales and revenues? Here are five mobile ad campaigns you can use for inspiration.
1. Heineken Hits the Back of the Net with Dual Screen Game
In 2011, UEFA Champion’s League sponsor Heineken introduced an innovative ‘dual screen’ app that let fans interact via their smartphones as games were taking place.
Using the StarPlayer app, viewers were able to react to what was happening in the game by pressing buttons to predict the outcome of set pieces such as corner kicks, penalties and free kicks. Options included a goal, a miss, a save or a clear and if you guessed right, you won points. Bonus questions about the teams were also posted throughout the game and the faster you answered, the more points you scored.
The Heineken marketing team were onto a winner with this one. It tapped into the surging popularity of dual-screening, where you use mobile devices to play along with live sporting events and shows, but also the competitive nature of the app meant that people were sharing across social media and forming leagues to see who got the best score, guaranteeing huge exposure for the beer brand.
Want to learn more? Check out the detail on this YouTube video.
2. Starbucks makes grabbing a coffee even easier
Giant coffee chain Starbucks recently used smartphones to make a coffee on the go even quicker for its US customers. By downloading the Starbucks Card mobile app, customers were able to charge it up with credit and then pay for their drink by simply having their mobile screen scanned at the checkout.
It proved to be a resounding success, with customers excited to have access to a new, faster way to pay and, after launching the app on iPhone, iPod touch and BlackBerry, Starbucks quickly extended the scheme to Android users.
3. Adidas Lights Up New York City
The goal of this campaign was to encourage mobile users to visit New York City’s Penn Station to view an Adidas ‘Light You Up’ promotional light show – an event featuring Argentinean footballer Lionel Messi, who was promoting the launch of the new Adidas Adizero F50 football boots.
In an ingenious piece of marketing, Adidas targeted all mobile users within a 3-mile radius of Penn Station in the hours leading up to the event with an ad that read ‘Adidas and Messi – After Dark Tonight’. Clicking on the banner lead consumers to a landing page where a promotional video described the event’s location and time. The event was a huge success thanks to the mobile marketing campaign drawing in thousands of interested onlookers.
Want to learn more? Click the image below to watch the YouTube video.
4. Text it like Beckham
This marketing masterpiece from Motorola was aimed at people taking flights from Hong Kong airport and used two of the most well known names in Asia – footballer David Beckham and musician Jay Chow – to enhance the experience of saying goodbye to friends and family.
This worked in two ways – mobile users could either take a picture on their mobile and send it along with a text message, or have a special message recorded by David Beckham and Jay Chow, which were then played to people at the airport via large digital advertising screens.
The campaign was a huge success and had a dual effect – it massively increased the popularity and sales of Motorola and meant that advertising space at Hong Kong airport was suddenly selling at a premium.
Want to learn more? Click the image below to watch the YouTube video.
This astonishingly effective example from 2008 saw BMW launch an innovative mobile marketing campaign designed to sell snow tyres to its German customers.
The company used data it had on file – car model and wheel type – to determine which sort of winter tyre would work best on each customer’s car. Attention was focused only on those BMW customers who had owned their car for less than a year and had purchased it in the summer or autumn, as older cars older would already have winter tyres purchased during the previous year.
On the first day of snowy weather in Germany, all the targeted customers received a text message showing an image of their car type with the recommended snow tyres. It also included a link to a site that enabled the customer to experiment with placing different BMW tyres on their virtual car before making a purchase.
This campaign combined great timing with clever targeting of a section of BMW’s customer base that was most likely to buy snow tyres. The results were impressive to say the least – with a conversion rate from messages sent to actual tyres purchased of 30%, whilst the campaign earned a staggering $45m in new business.
These are just five examples from the wide world of mobile marketing, but they all used the medium to deliver a strong sales message that engaged with consumers effectively and led to excellent results. Have I missed some out? If so, please leave a comment and let me know about your favourite mobile marketing moments!
About the Author: Triin Linamagi is a Key Account Manager for mobile marketing company TextMagic. She has previously worked with UK Startups and loves to write about online marketing trends, startups and business development.