Editor’s Note: this is a guest post from Owen Jones at ZoomShift and we hope it gets your creative mobile marketing juices flowing. Enjoy, we did.
Mobile marketing is any advertising activity that promotes products and services via mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones. It is understandably important for any business that wants to stay relevant in today’s world. Just consider the statistics. As of 2020, there are already 3.5 billion smartphone users globally. This is expected to grow to 3.8 billion in 2021.
Source: Statistica
So clearly accessing this market is important. But there is an art to effective mobile marketing. If you want to leave a long-lasting impression and grow conversions, you need to get creative and wow your audience.
In this article, I’ll share several creative mobile marketing campaigns that hit exactly the right spot. Hopefully, you’ll find them inspiring when coming up with ideas for a successful mobile marketing campaign. Let’s get started.
1. Domino’s Piece of the Pie Rewards
Source: Domino’s
In 2019, Domino’s launched its Piece of the Pie Rewards program ahead of the Super Bowl. The program ran from February 2 to April 28 and allowed customers to earn points by scanning their pizzas using the Domino’s app.
Each pizza, even if not purchased from Domino’s, was worth ten points. Other purchases from Domino’s were also worth points. To get a free medium two-topping Domino's pizza, all you had to do was collect 60 points.
And it wasn’t just the marketing concept that was new. Dennis Maloney, Domino’s’ Chief Digital Officer, said this was the first time Domino’s had used AI technology this way. The technology, he said, could identify all types of pizza, “even if it is a homemade English muffin pizza, a pizza with a hotdog stuffed crust, or a high-end artisan pizza. It can even identify if it’s a dog’s squeaky pizza toy!”
Domino’s launched this campaign at a time when Pizza Hut, its direct competitor, dominated the airwaves. They were the Super Bowl’s official sponsor. The stroke of genius was that even if a customer ordered from Pizza Hut, they could still use the app to gain points, thereby reminding them that Domino’s existed.
The success of this program hinged upon one universal truth: everyone wants free stuff, especially if it’s pizza. It was a clever campaign that sought to increase market penetration. There were clear benefits to the consumer for joining the Domino’s Pizza reward program, with no risk.
Once people were part of the reward program, Domino’s could market to these new users. After all, they knew that every member of the program was likely to have eaten six pizzas in three months. That put these people squarely into their target demographic.
2. Wendy’s Fortnite/Twitch Stunt
Source: Medium
The key to a successful mobile marketing campaign is to pay attention to your audience’s interests and preferred platforms. This was exactly what Wendy’s did when it rode on the popularity of Twitch, a live-streaming service for gamers, and the popular game Fortnite in 2018.
The campaign started when the fast-food chain, which has a no-frozen beef policy, joined in with a social media debate on which Fortnite character was better: Durr Burger or Pizza Pit. “We never joined #TeamBurger because Durrr Burger is full of freezers and we don’t clown around with the frozen beef. So now we’ll officially declare #TeamPizza and start the real fight, the war on frozen beef,” Wendy’s said on Twitter.
That alone caused quite a stir on the social media platform, with over 1,000 people responding to the tweet. Amongst the responses was this one from DiGiorno, a North American frozen pizza brand:
Source: Twitter
But Wendy’s did not stop there. Determined to rid the world of frozen beef, the fast-food chain created its own Twitch account. It then live-streamed a story about how a red-headed Fortnite character - who just happened to resemble the Wendy’s logo - rid the Fortnite world of Durr Burger’s restaurant.
The result? Hundreds of Fortnite players helped Wendy’s in its quest.
Wendy’s social media team offers a great example of how to leverage social media to make your brand relevant. In this instance, they combined a savvy social media campaign with mobile marketing to engage a large audience of gamers.
3. Ford’s SMS Text Marketing Campaign
In 2011, Ford Motor Company launched an SMS (text message) marketing campaign that resulted in an incredible 15.4% conversion rate.
The call-to-action, printed in newspapers, urged readers to text FORD to 63611 to receive more information about financing options for a new car. Responders were then asked to text the vehicle model they were interested in, their zip code, and their full name to be contacted by the local dealer.
Users had to complete the sequence because if they didn’t, they would receive the same reminder text again and again until they either sent their details or opted out. This campaign was successful because Ford made the barrier to entry so low; what could be easier than sending a single text message?
Be strategic if you decide to use SMS, though. If you do it wrong, you could annoy your potential customer, which will have the opposite effect to the one you’re after. Fortunately, there are some simple rules to follow to prevent your SMS campaign from being a failure.
4. Uniqlo’s Check-In Chance Campaign
Source: Uniqlo
Japanese apparel company Uniqlo was about to launch its yearly sale in 2011. Rather than promote it the traditional way, the company decided to use Facebook - at the time, the most popular social media platform for Uniqlo’s young target demographic.
The “Uniqlo Check-In Chance” campaign was born. This campaign urged customers to “check in” on Facebook at any of Tokyo’s 62 Uniqlo stores during the sale. They would then have the chance to win a 100 yen coupon.
The beauty of this campaign was in its simplicity, and it garnered an astounding 202,479 check-ins. The Uniqlo Facebook page garnered 10,000 likes as a result of the campaign, and store footfall rose to record highs. In three days, Uniqlo sold over 10 billion Japanese yen (just under $93,000) worth of clothing.
5. Burger King’s Burn That Ad
Source: BK Burn that Ad
Augmented reality (AR) is another possible arena to explore when it comes to mobile marketing. Last year, fast-food chain Burger King used AR to great effect in its Burn That Ad campaign.
The campaign, launched in Brazil, urged people to “burn” the ads of Burger King’s competitors using the AR feature in the company’s app. Once the ad “burned down,” the user could claim their prize: a free Whopper from the nearest Burger King restaurant.
While there are clear ethical concerns with this campaign, it gets top marks for creativity. It played upon brand familiarity (Burger King’s famous flame-broil) and then used it in a new and unexpected way.
The use of AR drove engagement, and the giveaway pulled people into Burger King’s restaurants (where many would buy fries or a Coke to go with that free Whopper). Not only that, but the mobile-based campaign was also used to introduce Burger King’s mobile order system to new users.
Just one clever campaign achieved all these objectives at once. You can’t get any more efficient and effective than that!
6. Ogilvy Paris and Scrabble’s Free Wi-Fi Campaign
Source: Ogilvy
In 2013, Scrabble set up free Wi-Fi hotspots throughout Paris. With the help of advertising agency Ogilvy Paris, the company focused on putting the hotspots in areas where Wi-Fi connections were notoriously patchy.
The two companies then announced that the passwords to use these hotspots would be given to people who demonstrated their spelling abilities by playing Scrabble through the app.
All users had to do was connect to the Scrabble network. They would then be given seven random letters and tasked with creating a word. Their score was automatically converted into Wi-Fi minutes. Players who shared their word on Facebook could also double their score and their Wi-Fi minutes.
This campaign was built around the idea of playfully encouraging the use of correct spelling, at a time when “text speak” was in widespread use.
The results were astounding: in just two weeks, people played more than 6,000 words and gave away more than 110,000 minutes of Wi-Fi. It was an incredibly successful way to promote the Scrabble brand by playing on its stated mission of “bringing letters and people together.”
Mobile Marketing: Unlocking Powerful Opportunities
These six cases show the power of mobile marketing and the wide variety of powerful opportunities it represents.
With mobile marketing, you have a world of tools and technologies at your fingertips to help you reach your audience. Aside from the obvious social media and SMS, there’s also augmented reality, artificial intelligence, games, live-streaming platforms, and more. The possibilities are endless if you apply a little creativity.
There is no single template for a great mobile marketing campaign. But as the examples in this article have shown, the key is to know your audience. You then need to align their interests and desires with your business goals.
There are three characteristics of a successful mobile marketing campaign: measurability, customer insights, and innovation. In other words, you must have the means to measure the success of your campaign, pay attention to your customers at every stage, and think outside the box to create something that is truly original.
If you do these things and use other proven mobile marketing tricks, there’s no reason you can’t create the perfect mobile marketing campaign that will drive engagement, increase conversions, and drive your business forward.
About the Author
Owen Jones is the Senior Content Marketer at Zoomshift, an online schedule maker app. He is an experienced SaaS marketer, specialising in content marketing, CRO, and FB advertising.
