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Amstel Light relies on mobile advertising to drive Facebook engagement

Amstel Light is using mobile advertising to build its social efforts and increase its Facebook presence.

The company is running the mobile ads within the Rolling Stone mobile site. Amstel Light is among the many marketers that is gradually turning to mobile advertising to drive their social presence.

"Amstel Light picked a great venue to host their mobile ad buy, but forgot a very important element of mobile ? why would the consumers click on the ad?" said Marci Troutman, CEO of SiteMinis, Atlanta. 

"The ad is clear, and very well designed, it just needs a coupon, offer, direction, action or something that will encourage the users to click-through," she said. 

"Once the ad is clicked taking a user straight to a Facebook page isn?t the best use of a destination point," she said. "The company would engage quite a few more consumers with an action that took the consumers to a mobile-optimized landing page that enabled the consumers to choose one or more items such as "Liking" the Facebook page, finding an Amstel Light or entering for a contest."

Ms. Troutman is not affiliated with Amstel Light. She commented based on her expertise on the subject.

Amstel Light did not respond to press inquiries.

The campaign is powered by Kargo. The company is working with Starcom MediaVest.

Drink on mobile
The Amstel Light mobile ad reads ?Savor Complexity.?

When consumers tap on the mobile ad, it automatically takes them to the company?s Facebook, which they are encouraged to ?Like" the page.

From there, users can browse the company?s information and photos, as well as see what others are saying about the company.

Additionally, consumers can post on the company?s Facebook page or upload an image.

A campaign such as this is an effective way for Amstel Light to build its social endeavors.

Mobile and social go hand-in-hand, therefore using both mediums is smart.

Other social efforts
Amstel Light is not the only company using mobile to drive its social initiatives.

Last year, Lipton Iced Tea encouraged Facebook ?Likes? and increased its social presence via a mobile campaign.

The company ran mobile banner ads that promoted its Pandora radio station and let consumers explore the natural side of music (see story).

Additionally, Lay?s looked to increase its social efforts by running mobile video ads within Hulu?s iPhone application that leds consumers to its Facebook page (see story).

"It is valuable to take consumers to a social media page, but there has to be a reason for them to "Like" the page ? even having a small direction of '"Like" our Facebook page and we?ll give you offers' would help the click rates," Ms. Troutman said. 

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