What you’ll read:
- How to engage customers via smart devices
- From Warby Parker to McDonald’s these are the brands excelling at mobile marketing
For years, marketers debated which channels were best for reaching consumers. Now, it’s much clearer—mobile devices. In 2022, brands need to stand out from the rest of the noise on consumers’ phones.
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Mobile marketing targets consumers on their smartphones through email, texts, social media channels, or other applications. With 56%of web traffic coming from mobile devices—and half of people spending five to six hours on their phones a day—it’s no wonder more companies are focusing on mobile marketing campaigns. Check out six great examples of these campaigns to get ideas for yours.
Virtual Try-On
Choosing a pair of glasses is a personal decision typically reserved for in-person shopping. However, Warby Parker has taken its glasses mobile with the Virtual Try-On feature in its app. The award-winning feature allows customers to click on glasses they’re interested in and then virtually try them on. The app recommends a size and shows color options, the price, and if the glasses are eligible for their home try-on program.
Warby Parker also offers quizzes through its app where customers answer a few questions and receive glasses suggestions for them to try on. With the virtual and home try-ons and the quiz, the company hits multiple stages of the sales funnel with their mobile marketing efforts.
Add-On Campaign
One of India’s largest food ordering and delivery platforms, Swiggy, created a mobile marketing “Add-On Campaign” to encourage customers to make orders more often. The campaign uses Facebook’s augmented reality platform to create an interactive experience where customers could choose a dish from a pre-existing menu and then use their camera to scan their current area to find another dish to go with their original choice. Think of it like an edible version of Pokémon GO.
Customers also received a coupon for the dish they “found” after they downloaded the Swiggy app. The campaign reached 16.8 million people and led to a 3.3-point increase in ad recall.
Burn That Ad
What better way to advertise a mobile app feature than with a mobile marketing campaign. Burger King’s l “Burn That Ad” augmented reality campaign in Brazil, shows McDonald’s ad burning when customers access the app and use their phone’s camera to see the competitor’s ads. After showcasing virtual flames, the app reveals the user has received a free Whopper.
The mobile marketing campaign resulted in 400,000 ads burned, a 55% increase in sales and made it the most downloaded app on the app store (food and drink category, Brazil). It mixes fun, interactive elements with a free item—doesn’t get much better than that.
AR Postcard
Direct mail and mobile marketing might not sound like they go together, but the Motley Fool proved that theory wrong. To increase awareness ahead of their membership renewals, the company mailed postcards to existing customers that could be scanned with a smartphone using AR technology. After scanning the card, customers were shown three options: explore the mountains, work on their golf swing, or relax on the beach. The AR technology would then show a scene based on their choice on the postcard. Here are some stats from the mobile marketing campaign:
- 40%engagement rate
- 2x page views per user
- ~2 minutes dwell time inside the experience
Famous Orders
To grow its mobile-base program, McDonald’s is using the star power of a few famous faces to drive customers to their app. Its Famous Orders collaborations feature celebrities like BTS and allows customers to order a special, BTS-inspired meal and sauces through the app. McDonald’s also released new digital surprises on the app with the K-pop group, along with merchandise. During the first week McDonald’s highlighted its BTS meal, its app installs jumped 23%—along with a 12-percent gain for daily average users.
The fast-food chain also ran a mobile marketing campaign where it offered a free McFlurry to anyone who ordered from their phone. And they’ve used this approach with free fry days from the app, as well.
Piece of the Pie
As the first company to launch an online tracker and voice ordering app, Domino’s has been an early adopter of mobile marketing. More than half of their orders come from mobile devices, so it makes sense they’d target their audience on these devices. From an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that takes orders to ordering via emojis, Domino’s has become known for its mobile efforts—like their Piece of the Pie rewards program.
Their app used AI to identify pizzas from photos: both pizzas from Domino’s and competitors. When customers signed up for the program and scanned a picture of a pizza, they earned 10 rewards points. That brought in user-generated content and increased brand recognition.
Get creative with mobile marketing
You know your customers have their phones handy at all times, so the task is how to engage with them via these smart devices. Using AI, augmented reality, and gamification will continue to be popular marketing tools—especially when there’s a reward for interacting or the brand makes the consumer’s life easier. Mobile marketing campaigns are the perfect media for thinking outside of the box.