Lexus, Walmart, JCPenney, Best Buy used mobile effectively during holidays: webinar
Lexus, Walmart, JCPenney, Best Buy and Vicks are examples of brands that used the mobile channel effectively during the holiday season to increase consumer engagement and drive sales.
During the hour-long webinar ?Happy Holidays or Not: Mobile Lessons Learned, and Best Practice for 2010? hosted by Mobile Marketer and sponsored by mobile ad network Millennial Media, four panelists discussed mobile?s progress over the holidays, lessons learned and best practice for 2010. The webinar panel was moderated by Mobile Marketer?s Mickey Alam Khan.
?A number of companies are starting to get more thoughtful about the mobile channel and how they deploy across channels,? said Louis Gump, vice president of CNN Mobile, Atlanta. ?More brands have mobile Web sites, and many ran holiday-themed promotions when it made sense?the mobile inventory during this time is very effective.
?We saw an increase in companies that do cross-platform advertising, realizing that some CNN users are going to be heavier users of the mobile platform, while some will be more active online, so by tying together different channels, they found success,? he said.
?Tis the mobile season
Based on banner-ad click-throughs and SMS responses, as well as the use of mobile for research, search, shopping, price comparing and even buying, it was clear that the medium has come of age.
Several brands ran mobile display and SMS campaigns, some to entice consumers to stores or online with new merchandise, others to offer discounts for holiday items.
Mobile Web activity also increased in the entertainment, consumer packaged goods, quick-serve restaurants and dating categories.
So how did marketers fare in their usage of mobile advertising, marketing and media this past holiday season?
Lexus and Vicks were two brands that Mr. Gump singled out to praise their use of mobile during the holiday season.
Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus brand extended its holiday sales campaign to mobile and featured images of a car wrapped up in a bow along with messaging about a December sales event.
?A lot of people are interested in looking at cars at the end of the year, and Lexus ran ads on our mobile site and app, as well as other platforms,? Mr. Gump said. ?That?s a good example of a brand that showed some thoughtfulness to gear its creative toward the holiday season.
?Vicks is becoming top-of-mind during the holiday season, and they run mobile ads during the cold and flu season to reach consumers,? he said. ?We?re seeing more and more brands and agencies that are increasing their mobile budgets and giving more thought to mobile initiatives.?
Mobile key for retailers
Walmart partnered with advertising agency R/GA, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, to create the retailer?s first iPhone application, which was released in time for the holiday season.
The application lets consumers post items to their Facebook newsfeed to help family and friends with purchase decisions and encourage viral spread.
Walmart advertised the iPhone application in weekly circulars, online and in-store.
?The Walmart app is focused solely on electronics, helping moms who are trying to figure out what electronics to buy for their family, because it?s a confusing area,? said Dave Edwards, group director of mobile at R/GA, New York.
Walmart was not the only retailer to take advantage of the mobile channel in the lead-up to New Year?s.
?Retailers that offered mobile coupons and discounts were big winners this holiday season,? Mr. Edwards said. ?Mobile is becoming increasingly important for retailers, and I don?t think shopping will ever be the same.?
Retail giant J. C. Penney Company Inc. launched a holiday-themed mobile Web site to promote its post-Thanksgiving and post-Christmas sales (see story).
JCPenney is also letting shoppers ring up savings at the register using their mobile phones with a 2D-bar-code coupon program (see story).
?JCPenney stood out this past holiday season,? Mr. Edwards said. ?What I loved about its approach was that it covered the whole range from feature phones to high-end phones like the iPhone.
?Consumers could register for a wake-up call from Cindy Crawford?I thought that was kind of cool,? he said. ?It ran a mobile coupon program where customers could download bar code coupons, which were scanned from the phone itself at the POS, and it provided mobile access to its weekly circular, where consumers were able to check for the latest offers and specials.
?JCP covered all of their bases on mobile, which was very smart.?
Best Buy offered a ?deal of the day? SMS alert that users opted-in to for special offers. Combine this with their mobile Web site that offers a store finder and further detail on the products and you have some of the key ingredients for a great campaign.
Because the company has product reviews on its mobile Web site, Best Buy includes an in-store call-to-action next to product specifications encouraging consumer to text a keyword to a short code for a product review.
Sephora launched a mobile Web site with thousands of product reviews intended to help store shoppers evaluate and compare items.
Sephora Direct said that the mobile site is driving sales in stores and keeping some customers in stores longer by giving them all this information at their fingertips.
Sears Holding Co. also put in a strong showing this holiday season.
?Sears covers most, if not all the bases: ship to store, buy online and pick up in-store, curbside pickups, buy online at Sears.com and customer picks it up,? said Noah Elkin, senior analyst at eMarketer, New York. ?It also offers the Sears2Go and KMart2Go iPhone applications, and took this to a higher level this year with the Sears PersonalShopper iPhone application.
?The brand that offers a mix of features that helps enable the shopping process on mobile devices, combined with a strong presence on search databases so consumers are able to find those brands through various search and research methods, took advantage of the opportunities that mobile offers,? he said.
?To really capitalize and maximize those efforts, brands need to make mobile programs more cohesive and integrated with a brand?s other marketing efforts,? he said.
Other verticals
According to Millennial Media, the industries spending the most on mobile advertising shifted in December.
Entertainment dropped to No. 4 for the first time, replaced at No. 1 by portals/directories, followed by telecoms and finance.
One example was MasterCard?s Priceless Picks application for the iPhone (see story).
Travel and hospitality brands got creative and targeted the business traveler as well as the as consumer with different messages to promote their services and offerings.
For example, Marriott International Inc. executed a rich-media campaign targeting RIM?s BlackBerry users.
?Brands are really starting to understand the power of mobile,? said Marcus Startzel, senior vice president of sales at Millennial Media, Baltimore. ?Brands started early this holiday season, well before the fourth quarter, and asked themselves ?How do I own this specific demographic of shoppers on Black Friday, Cyber Monday or the weekend after??
?Brands with bricks-and-mortar locations ran mobile ads to reach consumers when they?re out and about, including major brands we saw ink very large mobile deals this holiday season,? he said. ?Brands are not running mobile campaigns for the sake of doing mobile, it?s very much part of a 360-degree marketing strategy.
?Entertainment has been a leader in the mobile advertising space, and it is still very important, but other industries such as finance and travel are really starting to take hold, using mobile to target business travelers and promoting their products and services.?