Budweiser, Honda and Warner Bros. are among the top marketers leveraging a variety of advertising tactics to circumvent the rise of ad blockers through strategies such as sponsored social media and interesting call-to-actions. 

As ad-blocking technology is on the rise since the number of Apple?s new iPhone owners continues to jump, and consumers become less interested in pop-up ads, marketers have had to search for better ways. Sponsored posts that are native to social media experiences, humorous videos and dynamic advertising are some of the moves advertisers have made to appeal to consumers through the shift on mobile. 

The second quarter is likely to see a great deal of marketers employing more interactive elements with targeting on social sponsorship. With mobile video on the rise, marketers such as Budweiser and Mars work to garner attention through comedy, while others such as Honda attempt to forge a meaningful relationship. 

Here are the top 10 mobile advertising campaigns of the first quarter of 2016, in alphabetical order.

Budweiser leveraged mobile video to reach users in addition to high-profile Super Bowl ads, with a site that created convenient travel home to support the brand?s responsible driving message. 

The Super Bowl campaign had tapped mobile through multiple facets, including a video featuring actress Helen Mirren who called out drivers to protect lives to spark social media dialogue with the hashtag #GiveADamn, which triggers a branded emoji on Twitter. A standalone mobilized site, StandWithBud.com site allowed those watching the Super Bowl away from home to enter their location and find the most convenient transportation options, including taxis and car services. 

Brands are known to invest heavily in the highly watched commercials that air during the game but marketers have been failing to extend that reach to mobile over the recent years. This means advertisers are missing out on significant potential, as viewers increasingly watch Television while on smartphones, but Budweiser?s recent push showed the strategy?s potential. 

Groupon, StubHub and Spotify were some of the wide range of marketers that attempted to evade the anti-advertising attitude of consumers through a solution that balanced mobile ads with media brand?s content. 

While consumers are showing their aversion to interruptive advertising and ad-blockers are on the rise, marketers have been forced to find alternative methods to reach consumers with effective and permeating content. Publishers are now seeing the majority of their traffic coming through mobile, and marketers have started to tap into platform URX, that paired ads to media content. 

For instance, one dynamic ad that promoted a Beyoncé Spotify playlist appeared on an article about discussing the artist?s performance in the Super Bowl. Publishing partners such as Entertainment Weekly, Spin and FanSided made their mobile content available for advertisers such as Groupon, StubHub and Spotify to create a more dynamic and cohesive advertising experience.

Honda valued mobile when it targeted millennials with ads on social media platforms that are known to attract the young demographic for its Civic redesign launch. 

The Honda Civic redesign, a popular with young drivers, promoted the automaker to comprehensively reach out to the millennial demographic with a wide range of native-pushes on popular social media channels. Honda drove engagement on millennial-centric platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook with a variety of ad campaigns unique to each platform such as filters on Snapchat and video ads on Instagram.

The social media campaign is meant to show off the look and features to millennials, who would likely be interested. Honda launched a national filter on Snapchat in which users shared with friends, along with a takeover of Buzzfeed and IGN discover channels, 30 sponsored videos on Instagram and takeovers of YouTube and Yahoo homepages. 

Combe Incorporated?s Just for Men saw a brand lift of 24 percent when mobile ads appeared on the application theScore which featured an interactive quiz to target sports fans. 

The Just for Men campaign interested consumers through a fun experienced that created game-like atmosphere through a Sports trivia quiz. Mobile showed it was an effected fit for the interactive experiences. 

TheScore app is a staple in mobile sports destination and congregates scores from multiple leagues. The marketer leveraged a fitting app, as its user base is made up of older males who are more likely to be interested in Just for Men. 

Denim brand Levi?s made a deep connection to mobile users through an ad experience that targeted customers of Boost Mobile through leveraged an opt-in strategy paired with geotargeting to provide a discount on monthly charges. 

Boost Mobile users were provided the opportunity to save money on their monthly bill, following the download of an app that served geotargeted ads, which popped up on the locked screen of the mobile device. Levi?s hoped to bring nearby consumers into stores through an advertising opportunity that users chose to interact with, rather than an intruding ad. 

Those that downloaded the Boost Dealz app got a discount on their monthly phone bill. Levi?s geo-technology picked up users within in a certain radius of their bricks-and-mortar store locations, prompting the localized ads to appear on users? locked smartphone screens. 

Mobile video is on the rise and marketers are getting more accurate with their interpretation of the increasing staple in consumer behavior. For instance, Mars Chocolate North America and TruMoo served instant-play video ads natively within apps, which targeted users through on offline shopping behavior and incremental in-store sales lift measurements. 

Nielsen Catalina Solutions? offline purchasing behavior data allowed the consumer-packaged goods brands to gain more insights on shoppers on Opera Mediaworks? advertising platform. The partnership allowed the brand,s through mobile, to target those who had more of a tendency to purchase their products. 

TruMoo and Mars were able to measure the in-store incremental sales lift driven and gain greater insights for return-on-investment 

Target launched a banner ad on the Huffington Post that allowed viewers to browse various products for its P&G hair care brands and make a purchase by tapping a button. 

The marketer was hoping to engage fans with an exciting experience and overcome challenges with the small ad format that arise through the small smartphone screen. The ad for products such as Pantene and Old Spice were paired with an offer for a $5 gift card with the purchase of multiple items. 

A wide range of advertising are continuing to take to banner ads as the cost is relatively low and the format is familiar with many marketers that may be averted to change, causing naïve and video ads to rise. But research has shown that 60 percent of mobile banner ad clicks are accidental, which means marketers still rooted in leveraging the outdated advertising strategy should take a play from Target?s book. 

Toyota appealed to Facebook users with personal video advertisements for the RAV, which were individualized for each user. 

The advertising campaign consisted of 100 interchangeable clips and created more than 100,000 different spots. The Facebook ads tapped into data to create the personalization and each spot was created from three clips taken from the collection clip collection, cognizant of the individuals? interests. 

The videos exhibited the RAV4?s product attributes, in an example of how effective advertisers can leverage personalization to tap into the opportunities that mobile and social provide.   

Film studio 20th Century Fox test ran a Twitter video advertisement that claimed a significant reach by promising its top ad slot for 24 hours.

 

Many marketers value broad reach rather than effective targeting, which on a large scale can still hold significant benefits, and Twitter?s recent ad solution, First View, is pairing that with the reach of mobile video. 20th Century Fox targeted a huge range of users with a trailer for its new film Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates. 

The new film features popular actors Zach Efron and Adam Devine in a comedic plotline, that has the potential to gain a significant following prior to its release. Sharing the trailer on Twitter with such a large audience not only targeted a huge group likely to be interested in the film, but also gave them a native platform to start a discussion. 

Warner Bros. previewed its new film, Central Intelligence, on Snapchat with a short teasers the Now This video news Discover channel, hoping to reach millennials with snackable native engagements on mobile. 

The millennial news provider, Now This summarizes the news in short videos, which created an ideal location for a short teaser ad. The short format meant a better fit than longer full-trailered ad, and made lasting impression on fans by giving them the option to natively view the full trailer, if interested. 

The experienced showcased short, hard-hitting comedic moments in vertical format dispersed within the Now This channel content, and allowed users to swipe up to view the trailer in its entirety.