Universal Pictures is using mobile advertising to help promote its new ?Savages? film and get movie-goers hyped up about it.

The company is running expandable ads within Pandora?s iPhone application. Universal has used mobile advertising in the past to drive user engagement and, ultimately sell tickets.

?The Savages campaign is generally visually appealing and eye catching,? said Simon Buckingham, CEO of Appitalism, New York.

Mobile savage
The expandable mobile ad features characters from the film and encourages consumers to tap on the creative to watch a trailer for the movie.

When consumers tap on the mobile ad they are redirected to an optimized page where they can check out director Oliver Stone?s blog, watch the trailer for the film and watch clips.

A mobile campaign such as this is meant to bolster awareness for the film instead of simply leading consumers to Fandango?s mobile site to purchases tickets.

By letting users watch a trailer for the movie, Universal is letting them learn more about it, but in a non-intrusive way.

This mobile campaign works on many levels, because it provides several touchpoints for consumers to interact with the studio.

Past endeavors
Universal is no stranger to mobile.

Last year, the company used Microsoft Tag technology to promote its ?Bridesmaids? film.

Universal claimed it was the first major movie studio to use Tag to promote a nationally released film.

The promotional campaign featured Tags on full-page ads for the film that ran in Cosmopolitan, InStyle, People StyleWatch and Us Weekly (see story).

Recently, multichannel retailer HSN partnered with Universal Pictures to create a multichannel shopping experience that promoted the ?Snow White and the Huntsman? film and let consumers buy looks inspired from the movie across all devices.

Top designers in beauty, jewelry and fashion including Deborah Lippmann, Heidi Daus, Loree Rodkin and Ranjana Khan created collections inspired by the film (see story).

?There is however a lack of design consistency between the initial landing page, for the new campaign, and the 2 subsequent pages,? Mr. Buckingham said.

?The landing page is very dark colored whereas the subsequent pages, including multiple colors and eye catching visuals of the key characters in the movie,? he said.

?Consistency of design throughout the campaign is key and often overlooked in mobile marketing campaigns.?

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