T.J. Maxx, Marshall?s and Home Goods are using mobile advertisements to spread holiday cheer with a campaign that involves video, social and location-based features.

The ?Share a Carol? campaign is part of a broader holiday campaign that also involves Web and broadcast components. The ads are running on Shazam?s iPhone app and heavily promote sharing the ad via social networks.

?We've seen some really great execution examples of this,? said Corey Weiner, chief operating officer at Jun Group, New York.

?In particular, alongside a video and after the video completes, many brands successfully link in their Facebook fan page as a part of the promotion,? he said.

Mr. Weiner is not affiliated with T.J. Maxx, Marshall?s or Home Goods. He commented based on his expertise on the subject.

T.J. Maxx, Marshall?s and Home Goods did not respond to press inquiries.

Holiday spirit
The campaign is being promoted with banner ads that read, ?There?s a better way to Christmas shop.?

Once consumers tap on the banner ad, it expands into a half-page ad that invites users to send a Christmas carol to their friends and families.

Consumers can then watch a video clip of four carolers singing against a background.

Then consumers can create their own personalized Christmas carols.

Users can pick a backdrop, holiday song and special effects for their video that they can share via Facebook, Twitter and email.

Users can also opt-in to email programs from T.J. Maxx, Marshall?s and Home Goods via the ads.

Here is the page where consumers can send their videos and sign up for the email programs

The ads drive in-store traffic to T.J. Maxx, Marshall?s and Home Goods with a store-locator function that users can tap on to find the nearest store.

Additionally, the ads let consumers buy gift cards to the three retailers by directing them to a landing page where they can select a gift amount and card design to receive via mail.

Users can also visit the T.J. Maxx, Marshall?s and Home Goods mobile sites to shop.

Multichannel campaign
In addition to mobile, T.J. Maxx, Marshall?s and Home Goods are using television ads and a campaign-specific microsite.

The campaign?s microsite uses Google Maps to let users create carols in front of specific locations. Similar to the mobile component, users can select a song and share the video on social sites.

In addition to mobile advertising, T.J. Maxx, Marshall?s and Home Goods have also dabbled in other mobile channels, including QR codes and optimized Web sites.

The ?Share a Carol? campaign is a good example of a campaign that uses mobile in conjunction with other digital channels for a multichannel campaign, especially with the video component.

Social media and mobile are increasingly being used closely together with more consumers accessing social network sites on their mobile devices.

With the increase in usage, consumers are also interacting more with brands on social media.

For example, an executive from Facebook recently said that brands get ?liked? on the social site one million times a day (see story).

?It is often said that mobile is social," said Paul Bremer, chief revenue officer at Rhythm NewMedia, Mountain View, CA.

"The inclusion of various engagement options helps connect mobile users to their social networks," Mr.  Bremer said.

"At Rhythm, we have found that when advertisers include social media options with full-page ad units, engagement rates increase 57 percent."

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York