L?Oreal?s Vichy beauty line recently saw strong results when it ran a one-day in-store mobile promotion.

On April 6, Vichy used the timeRAZOR application to let women schedule one-on-one beauty consultations at Duane Reade locations in New York. The app also used location to help consumers find the closest Duane Reade store.

?Mobile, in this instance, allowed the company to reach their audience while they were on the go and increased the brand's ability to drive awareness of their event, foot traffic into stores and engage with their audience in a whole new way,? said Jeff White, CEO/cofounder of timeRAZOR, Leesburg, VA.

Mobile beauty
In addition to an increase in attendance, Vichy and timeRAZOR claim that 70 percent of the stores that participated in the program increased their revenue from the event. This shows that mobile is not just effective at driving foot traffic ? it can also lead directly to sales.

According to timeRAZOR the increase in sales and attendance can be chalked up to the spontaneous, impulsive qualities of mobile.

In order to sign up for the event, women could download the timeRAZOR app, which is available for both iPhone and Android devices. TimeRAZOR then promoted the event to 50,000 users through geo-location.

From there, consumers could pick a time and location to schedule a one-on-one beauty consultation that promoted Vichy beauty products.

The event also included free product samples, giving users an incentive to come into stores for the event and in turn, led users to shop.

Event details could be shared with friends and family through social media, which also plays a large role in Vichy?s marketing strategy.

Time-sensitive offers
When it comes to mobile, time and location are two of the most important factors for marketers to use in campaigns.

Consumers have come to expect that messages that they receive via their smartphones and tablets are relevant and targeted to them.

Additionally, including a time element is always a smart feature to include to give consumers an incentive for interacting with a mobile ad.

Vichy is not the only company using mobile to send time-sensitive messages to groups of targeted users.

For instance, Nordstrom recently used a mobile campaign to promote an in-store beauty sale. Via the mobile ads, consumers could also find nearby stores and learn more about the event (see story). 

?Since time-specific events are bound by time and location, they are a perfect fit for mobile as users tend to be in the vicinity of events but never know about them or have forgot about them,? Mr. White said.

?This is especially true for busy people on the go - knowing about future events in a convenient way allows them to plan and ultimately results in higher consumer engagement and satisfaction,? he said.

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