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Quaker Oats relies on mobile to build brand awareness

Quaker Oats is putting mobile at the center of its latest initiative that aims to drive brand awareness and engage consumers on a deeper level.

The company is running the mobile ad campaign within Us Magazine?s mobile site. Quaker has used mobile in the past to interact with new and existing consumers. 

?Organic marketing is infinitely more powerful than B2C marketing,? said Shuli Lowy, marketing director at Ping Mobile, Beverly Hills, CA. ?It?s a function of bias, trust, and personalization.

?We expect every company, whether it sells a good or bad product, to proclaim its awesomeness,? she said. ?Inevitably, after exposure to alluring advertising that has landed us with unsatisfactory products, we?ve developed inherent skepticism towards advertising. We listen to it, we absorb it, but we take our steps with questioning caution.
 
?Organic advertising, on the other hand, is entirely different. When your friend or relative messages you about a great product, you know that the person was so elated with the purchase that he/she couldn?t help but pass on the recommendation. Furthermore, our friends and relatives often have similar likenesses to our own and so their approval of a product is far more valuable to us.?

Ms. Lowy is not affiliated with Quaker. She commented based on her expertise on the subject.

Quaker did not respond to press inquiries.

Driving engagement
The Quaker mobile ad reads, ?Fuel your family?s adventures with the power of Quaker. View Adventures. Quaker Up.?

When users tap on the mobile ad, they are redirected to an optimized page where they are encouraged to share their family?s epic adventures.

From there, consumers can upload their own image, which reflects their adventure.

Furthermore, users can ?Like? someone else?s picture or send it to friends and family via Facebook.
 
?Marketers put icons throughout campaigns that easily allow users to share material with friends, followers, and associates,? Ms. Lowy said. ?This gives the subtle illusion that the content did not originate from the brand but from the friend/relative.
 
?Facebook apps are extremely powerful catalysts for organic advertising since they turn the sharing process into a fun and personalized activity,? she said.

?Quaker?s is turning social sharing into an enjoyable process, allowing people to create comics and collages about their kids and post it on their Facebook walls.?

Past campaigns
Quaker is no stranger to mobile.

In 2011, Quaker Oats used QR codes on the packaging on certain items as a way to initiate a dialogue with customers that continued online (see story). 
 
Last year, Quaker tied mobile and social into its marketing campaign that aimed to promote its new products and let consumers learn more about them (see story).

?Think of it as a domino effect ? not only is the Quaker?s mobile ad campaign increasing its brand visibility, but it?s simultaneously knocking down diverging branches in the domino line by encouraging other people to share the brand?s material with their friends on Facebook,? Ms. Lowy said.

?Even if the percentage of ad viewers who post the picture to their wall is low, the reachability will still go far as each of those who do post likely have hundreds of friends,? she said. 

Final Take
Rimma Kats is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York