Brands need to use mobile advertising during the holidays to influence consumers as they are out buying gifts and should buy mobile media based on shopping behavior during this time of the year.

Marketers should not be using mobile in their holiday marketing efforts just to check the box and say that they have done it. Instead, a clear, holiday-tailored strategy should be laid out before buying network mobile media.

?Make sure you have a clear objective in mind with what you do in the mobile space and put the consumer first,? said Brenna Hanly, mobile catalyst at Boston-based Mullen?s mediahub. ?Ensure that you have done enough primary research to know what your consumer is actually interested in and then deliver something that provides a real utility. 

?For instance, last year Target enabled users to find gift suggestions for friends and family based on descriptors within their app,? she said. ?I think Eric Litman, the CEO of Medialets, New York, said it best when he said ?the market doesn?t need another shakable, snowglobe app.??

Holiday media buying
Per Ms. Hanly, there are going to be different buying strategies to fit different objectives.

But there will be immense advertising clutter in the marketplace over the holiday season. 

?If right for your brand, consider not just buying inventory from ad networks for the efficiencies, but to also complement that with the impact of mobile rich-media units,? Ms. Hanly said. ?Incorporating compelling rich media will be more memorable and can have a higher impact on consumers further down the purchase funnel.?

According to Mark Roth, CEO of OfferMobi, New York, demographics should play a big role in how marketers plan their media buying on mobile for the holidays.

Targeting a 50-year-old male with ads for feminine hygiene products, whether during the holidays or not, is not going to lead to conversions.

?You need to make sure you?ve got the right demographic ? parents for Halloween costumes,? Mr. Roth said. ?For Christmas it is a wider audience.

?But buying media during the holidays is not all that different than buying media all year round,? he said. ?It?s a about matching the target audience to the product offering that you have.

?Be aware that in mobile we lean towards the younger demo for those who are most active on their phones.?

Context is king 
Use mobile advertising to influence consumers in the ?now? as they are out shopping for holiday gifts, Ms. Hanly recommends.

Serve ads that are relevant to specific locations, specific times of day and related to content that the user is consuming. 

Again, to become hyper-relevant and cut through the clutter, a partnership with some of the newer LBS applications makes sense. 

Through a Shopkick or a SCVNGR, brands can reward and incentivize consumers to enter the store and keep coming back. 

Mobile allows consumers to act at the point of impulse.

?Whereas not so long ago if you had an urge to buy a scarf that you saw someone wearing on the street, you would have to go home, look it up on the Internet and then figure out where you could go to buy it,? Ms. Hanly said.

?Now, you can use your mobile device to look up the scarf and then find out locations near you and directions to get there, or just buy it right from your phone,? she said.

Targeting
With mobile, take advantage of as much targeting as possible, Mr. Roth said.

He suggested that marketers find publishers that have a lot of registration data, which will allow for more precise targeting.

?There is a limited amount of targeting on mobile when compared to the Web,? Mr. Roth said. ?Use whatever you can use.

?Find publishers with registration data, which will give you much better targeting,? he said. ?Age, gender and regional data that you would not otherwise get is possible with publishers that have registration data.

?Do a lot of testing to figure out which carriers and devices make sense for your campaign. That testing will locate trends and then you can take care of the targeting.?

There is definitely going to be a significant bump in mobile Web traffic during the holidays.

Therefore, it is imperative to take advantage of that and be in front of a mobile audience.

According to Mr. Roth, the bump will give more data for testing as well.

?Why is it imperative for marketers to have a mobile advertising presence during the holidays?? Mullen?s Ms. Hanly said. ?When was the last time you left your house to go shopping without your phone??

Final take
Giselle Tsirulnik is senior editor of Mobile Marketer
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