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Faryn is a marketing geek who has worked in the industry since 2008. She advocates an integrated marketing approach and enjoys helping her clients enhance their online presence. When she’s not watching TV commercials for fun, she likes to play fetch with her rescue dog Chase, partake in board sports either on lakes or mountains, and drink good wine.

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Mobile Takeover Part 2: Location-based ads, SMS targeting, and Snapchat!

Mobile-TakeoverMobile is a hot topic over here at Vovia and I’m sure that you’ve been waiting on pins and needles for the follow up to my previous blog Mobile Device Takeover Part 1. While Part 1 explores why and how you should be integrating mobile into your current business model, part 2 is looking at some of the more cutting edge ways to leverage mobile devices for your business. I’ll talk about how location-based advertising is being used, why consumers are more open to SMS mobile ads, and how marketers can use social fad apps to reach potential clients.

As the internet has become readily available at our fingertips and as consumers continue to integrate their lives with online applications such as Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat, marketers have noticed a shift in consumer attitude toward traditionally invasive advertising. Consumers understand that advertisers can use GPS to target them, and serve them relevant, and sometimes even welcome, ads or promotions. However, instead of mobile ads being invasive and annoying, businesses have figured out that they can be inviting, funny, and even offer benefits by engaging in mobile ad programs.

Location-Based Mobile Advertising

Think of location-based mobile advertising as a highly targeted, mobile friendly version of Google AdWords campaigns.  Ads are triggered on user’s devices when they enter a geo-fenced (geo-targeted) area.  The ads triggered can be SMS ads or display ads. A recent study by Verve  Mobile tested casual dining businesses who used targeted mobile advertising and showed some interesting results:

  • Campaigns that used location data performed twice as well as those that didn’t.
  • Foot traffic to restaurants close to the geo-targeted (or geo-fenced) area tripled when location targeted ads were used.

Another successful user of  location-based advertising is Hair Club for Men who multiplied their mobile effectiveness with location-triggered ads. They used Google mobile ads, location extensions, click-to-call mobile ads, and a mobile website to grow their mobile presence. The campaign resulted in mobile conversions contributing to 6% of total sales for that period.

Location-based ads will continue to evolve and be integrated into online marketing efforts. And, unlike the QR code, location-based ads have very real potential to become revenue generators for a variety of businesses.

Social Applications for Advertising

Advertisers are just testing the waters on how to use vastly popular social apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and Vine. While Instagram is a great platform for some brands to share photo stories and brand promotions, other applications like Snapchat and Vine are proving harder to tackle.

16 Handles wins the prize for being the first company to use Snapchat in a marketing promotion, and I also give them 5 stars for being the most creative thus far. The frozen yogurt chain engaged young users by encouraging them to “Snap” photos of their friends in a 16 Handles store in the new year with the “Snappy New Year” campaign. The 16 Handles marketing team would reply with a coupon ranging between 16% to 100% off of the Snapchatter’s purchase. The only caveat being the coupon expired in 10 seconds (the max time allowed for a Snapchat). The brand was able to use the Snapchat platform in a unique way to personally engage with customers. Check out the rules and regulations of the t “Snappy New Year” campaign below.

GE also broke ground in using Vine by promoting it’s brand and brand tagline “imagination at work”. They have been creating a series of 6 second long Vines of quick science experiments and cool special effects. While Vine’s don’t have direct user interaction like Snapchat offers, the shareability of this type of content has been beneficial to GE’s brand.

As social applications continue to gain extreme popularity, marketers are speculating how each platform will integrate more traditional advertising. Will Vine integrate linked, 6 second “commercial” spots on the popular feed?  Will Snapchat give advertisers the ability to mass Snap registered users without their permission? As the platforms mature, I expect we will see more ways for marketers to access these mass social communities.

Has your business experimented with mobile or social promotions?  Are you interested in learning how they could work for you?  Let us know in the comments or get in touch!