NEW YORK ? A Hill Holliday executive at the 2012 IAB Mobile Marketplace said that by using location-based search functionality, a recent Dunkin? Donuts campaign saw 72 percent of users access map and directions features, which ultimately drove in-store traffic.

During the ?Mobile Success Stories: Leveraging Local? session, mobile experts spoke about three examples of campaigns that successfully used location to drive ROI and foot traffic. Case studies from La Quinta Inn & Suites, Dunkin? Donuts and Blockbuster were presented during the session.

?We?re tasked with the challenge of bridging the gap between that search behavior that is so valuable to these brands with reaching someone that has shown that they are interested in the category and actually getting them in-store,? said Renee Robertson, associate media director of search at Hill Holliday, Boston.

?Mobile has enabled us to get to a local user that is not only searching on a regular basis but also on the go,? she said.

Search on mobile
Hill Holliday recently worked with Dunkin? Donuts and xAd on a campaign aimed at driving in-store foot traffic via mobile search.

Although consumers are using search engines to access quick information about a brand, users are also actively searching in mobile applications. However, that experience can be fragmented across devices.

Using in-app mobile search, Dunkin? Donuts helped users find nearby locations with a campaign that included click-to-call and map features.

Once a user searches for a keyword in an app, such as coffee, they are served a sponsored listing inside an app and are sent to a landing page with location-specific information.

In addition to the percentage of users who accessed maps and directions, the campaign claims to have a click-through rate that is six times the industry average.

Additionally, 27 percent of users accessed the click-to-call features in the campaign.

Chad Hickey, director of national sales at xAd, New York, also spoke on the panel. According to the executive, more than 90 percent of users who respond to search listings want to either make a phone call or find maps or directions.

Based on how consumers took a direct action with maps and directions in the campaign, there is a strong likelihood that the same consumers that were searching in-app also came into stores, per Mr. Hickey.

Fast bookings
Executives from La Quinta Inn & Suites and Definition 6 also spoke on the session about how the travel and hospitality industry has been shaken up by mobile.

La Quinta Inn & Suites originally entered the mobile space in 2007 with an optimized site. However, the brand realized that it needed to make its mobile site more contextually aware to ultimately drive mobile bookings.

For instance, when users load La Quinta Inn & Suites? mobile site it automatically asks to use their location to help find nearby hotels. Additionally, the site integrates into the hotel brand?s loyalty program to let users access and manage their points from their handsets.

One of the biggest myths in mobile is that it is OK if a brand?s mobile site is not up to par with a mobile app.

However, with advancements in mobile Web design such as HTML5, more brands are using a mobile site to not only reach a wider group of users but also drive acquisition.

?We need a [mobile] Web site that delivers a very powerful first landing experience for our customer in a contextually-aware [environment],? said Ted Schweitzer, senior vice president of ecommerce at La Quinta Inns & Suites, Dallas, TX.

Many marketers also believe that mobile users are distracted. However, with consumers actively using their device while watching television and using it to update social media, the mobile device is the go-to device to connect with consumers.

Research has shown that consumers are often waiting up until the day of arrival to make hotel reservation, showing how the mobile booking experience must be quick and easy.

La Quinta Inns & Suites has released a feature on its mobile site that lets users book a hotel quickly in four steps by only using a phone number to help drive the number of conversions made via mobile.

Mark Emery, mobile marketing strategist at Definition 6, Atlanta, also spoke during the La Quinta Inns & Suites case study.

Location is key
Executives from Yellow Pages and Booyah Online Advertising spoke about how a recent campaign using geo-fenced technology was successful at driving consumers into Blockbuster stories.

David Kurtz, vice president of publisher products at Yellow Pages, Glendale, CA spoke on the panel about the opportunities that location offers marketers, especially with geo-location.

For instance, geo-targeting can be used with specific radiuses around different stores depending on where in the country the ad is running.

Some of the goals that Blockbuster had with its campaign was to drive highly-valued potential customers to a Blockbuster location with features such as mapping or social sharing. Additionally, the brand wanted to send out mobile coupons and location-relevant messages to users.

Users were given three different locations via the mobile ads. Fifty-five percent of users accessed maps and direction features in the Blockbuster campaign.

Additionally, 19 percent of the users in the campaign used mobile coupons when given the opportunity.

?We can see overall that smartphones are increasing year-over-year and month-over-month and that means two things for us as it relates to this campaign,? said Emily Iverson, director of display media at Booyah Online Advertising, Denver.

?More and more GPS-enabled usage is going to occur as well as more and more time on WAP and app advertising,? she said.

Final Take