Unilever?s Café Zero recently ran a campaign in Holland that not only built buzz around a seasonal product, but also drove users to nearby locations to try the drink.

The mobile ads ran within the Sanoma Media-owned news company NU.nl's iPhone application. The ads were targeted to users and took advantage of mobile video as a way to hook impressions.

?The main goal of the campaign was to raise brand awareness for a 30-second commercial,? said Norman van Ameyden, account manager of mobile sales at Sonoma Media, Hoofddorp, Netherlands.

?It promoted an ice-cold cappuccino drink, and as the weather got warmer we saw that it generated more media impressions,? he said.

Mobile chill
The Café Zero ad campaign ran from June 11 to July 9 and was featured on the homepage of the NU.nl iPhone app.

When users opened the NU.nl app, a half-page ad for Café Zero showed a video clip stacked on top of a banner ad. When tapped on, the video remained stationary on the page, letting users tap on the banner ad while the video was still running.

The video was a 15-second clip and repurposed from the brand?s 30-second commercial. When it comes to mobile video, shorter content is always better and the campaign is smart to cut the length of the commercial in half with smaller attention spans from mobile users.

To find the nearest location to buy Café Zero products, consumers could tap on the banner ad and were asked if it was OK to use their device?s location. The ads used 1,800 selling points in the country to drive foot traffic.

A map then showed consumers routes to nearby stores as well as contact information.

Summer refreshment
Given the purchase impulse behind a small item such as coffee, mobile can be a great way for brands to drive product awareness.

By using both a banner ad and video ad to initially hook consumers, it gives users an option of how they want to interact with an ad.

Time of year also plays a large role in this campaign. Serving up an ad for an ice-cold coffee while consumers are on the go is a strong incentive to tap on an ad during the summer.

More importantly though, adding a location-specific element is a critical element that many marketers miss out on. The built-in GPS of smartphones gives marketers an additional layer to add on to campaigns, which can be particularly effective for consumer-packaged-goods brands.

Additionally, by driving users to a store, marketers can tie campaigns to store-specific sales, which gives brands a way to measure their marketing initiatives. 

?We see that a lot of brands are using the unique selling points of mobile such as click-to-call and GPS to show the value of mobile,? Mr. van Ameyden said.

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York