NEW YORK ? A Weather Channel executive at the 2012 MMA Forum said that a recent mobile campaign with Ace Hardware points to the effectiveness of geolocation and targeting, with approximately 61 percent of users interested in buying from the company after seeing the mobile ad.

During the ?Agency Workshop: Buying Mobile Advertising? session, two executives from The Weather Channel presented the case from Ace Hardware in conjunction with other examples of campaigns that the publisher has seen success with. Additionally, the session gave attendees best practice tips for executing  their own mobile advertising campaigns.

?The objective for Ace Hardware is to drive top of mind awareness all the way down to purchase intent to go into their stores,? said Sean Kearney, director of sales at The Weather Channel, Atlanta.

?The idea is to study ad effectiveness pre and post-exposure,? he said.

Mobile intention
Ace Hardware ran a campaign that changed based on the location of the mobile device.

For example, for locations where it was raining, consumers got served an ad encouraging them to prepare for rain. Other ads where the weather was sunny encouraged users to get outside.

The Weather Channel then worked with InsightExpress to measure the campaign.

In addition to purchase intent, The Weather Channel also looked at how effective the ads were at driving brand awareness. The survey measured a group of consumers before and after seeing the Ace Hardware ad.

The campaign had a 34.1 percent difference between consumers who were aware of the Ace Hardware brand before seeing the ad and afterwards.

Making ad content more relevant and targeted is a long-term goal for The Weather Channel. For example, the company?s iPad application opens with a scene that changes based on a consumer?s location, which could be used to serve highly relevant, targeted ads to consumers.

Hyperlocal advertising creates more of a one-on-one targeting, per the exec.

Design for mobile
Jeff Goldberg, manager of mobile client solutions at The Weather Channel also spoke on the panel about best practices for brands looking to integrate mobile into advertising campaigns.

Rich media offers marketers the opportunity to target users in unique and tailored ways.

However, the technology is still new and it is important to keep campaigns simple and reflective of the brand?s image.

Additionally, mobile ad campaigns need to be relevant, especially in a personable category such as weather.

For example, The Weather Channel recently ran a campaign with Westin Hotels where an ad was served to users in cold climates. The ad encouraged users to wipe away frost on their screen to display an ad for the hotel, which could then be shared via social media.

Similarly, Lennox ran an ad with The Weather Channel that was targeted to users in warm climates. When users swiped their mobile device?s screen, the air conditioner unit was advertised.

Finally, it is important to keep ads fun and entertaining for users, per the exec.

For example, Duracell recently ran a campaign with The Weather Channel that let users play a short game. This helped bring the brand to life, via the exec.

Additionally, another Ace Hardware campaign let users paint their own rooms with a virtual paint bucket.

One of the biggest challenges with mobile advertising is measuring engagement, and Mr. Goldberg believes that brands need to shift away from using just a click-through-rate as the only form of measurement.

For example, social media engagement can be a great indication of a campaign's success depending on how many users spread the word about a marketing message to friends and family.

?One of the great things with rich media today is that there are lots of standards out there ? it?s not the Wild Wild West like it used to be a few years ago, so you can build one execution and run it across multiple platforms,? Mr. Goldberg said.

?If we?re going to serve an ad, how do we make it fun, [and] how do we make it engaging?? he said.

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