Starbucks solidifies mobile advertising push with new timely campaign

Starbucks is no stranger to mobile advertising and is continuing to prove that the medium works for the company by running a new campaign that aims to bolster its VIA Instant Coffee sales.

Starbucks is running the new campaign within TV Guide’s iPhone application. The coffee giant has been using mobile advertising quite a bit in the past to not only drive in-store traffic and sales, but also increase brand awareness.

"The Starbucks Via campaign is interesting as it is mainly an educational informational campaign when mobile consumers are often time constrained and looking for ideas and options and offers," said Simon Buckingham, CEO of Appitalism.

"The campaign assumes that consumer behavior on the mobile Internet has converged with that of the Internet itself which is an informational medium," he said.

"I think this campaign is ahead of consumer behavior on mobile and will therefore be ineffective."

Mr. Buckingham is not affiliated with Starbucks. He commented based on his expertise on the subject.

Starbucks did not respond to press inquiries.

Cup ‘o joe
The new mobile campaign from Starbucks promotes the company’s Via Instant Coffee products. The mobile ad reads “Iced coffee at home, made easy. Learn more.”

When consumers tap on the mobile ad they are redirected to Starbucks’ mobile-optimized site where they can learn more about the products.

The company is also sweetening the deal by offering Starbucks Reward members an extra star for each pack of Starbucks VIA Ice Coffee they buy using their registered card. Every time a user reaches 15 stars, they received a free, customized drink.

Through the mobile advertising campaign, Starbucks is also encouraging consumers to join the My Starbucks Rewards club, as well as see what else the company has to offer. Read More

Pepsi, Lay’s heat up mobile efforts with interactive summer campaign

Pepsi and Lay’s are putting mobile at the core of its Rock Your Summer campaign that rewards consumers with prizes when they use their mobile device to engage with the company’s products.

Both Pepsi and Lay’s are running an interactive mobile advertising campaign within Pandora’s iPhone application. The campaign includes expandable, full-page and audio ads.

“Pepsi and Lay's, part of the same group Pepsico, are showing here that two brands' combined strategy can be very efficient both for the group and for each brand separately,” said Renaud Skalli, head of artist and label relations at MyLoveAffair.  

Mr. Skalli is not affiliated with PepsiCo. He commented based on his expertise on the subject.

PepsiCo did not respond to press inquiries.

Mobile summer
The Pepsi and Lay’s mobile ads aim to encourage users to engage and learn more about the company’s products.

The company is offering consumers a free music download, as well as other prizes when they tap on the ad.

After users tap on the ad, they are taken to a mobile-optimized landing page that encourages them to match a Pepsi and Frito Lay product by taking a photo of their match and submitting it.

Consumers can text or email their photo to rock@pepsico.com

Additionally, users can upload their photo via desktop or Webcam at PepsiRocksNow.com.

From there, consumers are entered for a chance to win prizes such as free music and merchandise.

Read More

7 Tips for Big Brands That Want to Reach Local Consumers

National brands that add local context to their mobile campaigns can expect to see click-through ratesthat are 4% to 7% higher than typical mobile display ads, while adding something as simple as a local phone number to an ad can increase response rates by 40%. While there’s little doubt that local marketing helps big brands get noticed, many national companies have been slow to get onboard with these types of advertising tactics thus far. (Thirty-three percent of the top 100 U.S. brands don’t have mobile-optimized websites, and 16% have no mobile strategy.)

For tips on how national brands can create tailored local campaigns, we spoke with Jamie Olson, vice president of shopper marketing for Blue Chip Marketing Worldwide and the executive responsible for Vicks’ successful mobile campaign in 2011, and Ron Blevins, vice president of digital strategy for Novus, an ad agency focused solely on the local space. Here is their advice for brands thinking of taking the leap into local.

1) Start by asking why local is attractive. Olson recommends that national brands start by pinpointing why it is they want to go local with their marketing. Is it to reach a new demographic? Overcome a particular obstacle to reaching that demographic? Or maybe to try out a new mobile platform that customers are using? The answers to these questions will guide which tools Olson recommends companies use to achieve their advertising goals.

2) Keep audience size in mind. The more criteria that a brand uses when deciding which customers should receive its targeted messages, the higher the click-through rates and redemption stats will be. The flip-side to this, however, is that brands can expect to hit fewer people through their local campaigns than they would with national outreach efforts. For these reasons, Olson says local marketing is best for brands that are comfortable focusing on the quality of leads that come in, versus the quantity of click-throughs and coupon redemptions.

3) Think outside the box. To get the most benefit out of local investment, Blevins says brands need to find out how they can customize their ads. Rather than taking the easy way out by using local inventory aggregators or geo-targeted display ads, companies should opt for custom executions such as sponsorships, unique ad units, and content integration with local publishers. Brands that engage in these types of programs at Novus have seen dramatic increases in their marketing performance, and Blevins says the impact these ad runs have on consumers can’t be understated. Read More