This is part three of our mobile marketing series. Part one was “What You Need To Do Mobile Marketing This Year” and part two was “Building a Mobile Friendly Website.

While you were being mildly amused by Clint (Not-From-Detroit) Eastwood, I’ve been compiling examples for that Mobile Campaign you’ve been kicking around for a month now.  Ranging in complexity, one truth holds for each campaign:  you must engage customers on-the-go by taking advantage of technology trends, social habits and reward systems.   

Dominos Pizza App
Dominos designed a functionally-outstanding Mobile Application that satisfies our most important need – the need for delicious food. The slick design cuts out the unnecessary fat, and leaves the meat (on your pizza). Dominos app finds stores near you and allows you to place the order through a specific mobile device. I was specifically impressed with the iPad version: large screen and faster connection speeds are utilized for luscious graphics and an intuitive interface. You can almost smell the food as your trembling fingers select pizza size, toppings and crust. The app offers latest deals and does an excellent job of upselling closer to the check out.

Highlights: Dominos built a stand-alone app which makes it easy and fun to order pizza.

 
Diesel Taps into Facebook
Diesel came up with a clever campaign that taps into the mighty power of Facebook and QR Codes. Picture this: Your girlfriend/wife drags you to go “pick up a few things Downtown” with her. After hours of stumbling around from store to store, you smell like pink unicorns and glitter. She asks ‘Hey hun!  Is there, like, anywhere you want to go?’ You skillfully navigate to your favorite Diesel store thanks to your handy smartphone. There’s a TON of cool clothes, but they’re a little expensive. Luckily you run into a QR Code Promotion which will let you 1) LIKE these cool trendy clothes on Facebook for all of your 400 friends to see, and 2) get a discount for doing so. Wait! What’s that sound? It’s the sound of tech-savvy-smart shopper, living unicorn and glitter free in his new Diesel clothes.

Highlights: Excellent use of a reward system in trending technologies. Advertising the item and brand to all of customers Facebook friends. Diesel upsells by making suggestions on items that would go together through your phone.
 

Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG)
IHG took advantage of social habits with some heavy-duty technology. The staple of this campaign was Search. While travelling in a new city, short for time, consumers would search and book local hotels on their smartphones, and guess who would come up? IHG used Google Ad Words, which targets consumers based on what search terms they use and appropriately displays an ad for IHG hotels.  

The target market was strategically divided into customers new to the brand and loyalist. A clean, clutter-free website was created for people new to the brand.  The features included finding a hotel near you, viewing reservations and booking the hotel.  Loyalists, on the other hand, would download a free app, which would grant them quicker access to all of the regular features and let them collect loyalty points as an incentive and reward for checking into IHG hotels.

Highlights: Combined with Google Adwords campaign the traffic increased 20% month-to-month. Increase in revenue over 90% . Downloads increased 400% in August

 

Throughout the three part mobile series I’ve illustrated concepts and examples of how and why you should have a firm understanding of your consumer. Like all advertising, mobile is a reflection of your brand. Your product should help a customer satisfy a need or a want, solve a problem, it should delight them. Mobile is what your customers are using now. Meet them there.

Apps over Ads photo by Will Lion

Dmitri Pivtorak, Yaffe Social Team

Target is at it again - creating another stylishly fun spot that I just love. I saw it for the first time when the minute long version aired the Grammys last Sunday. Twitter immediately blew up with praise for the commercial. And for good reason!

The spot touts color for the new spring fashions and features a hot air balloon landing in a downtown area. Immediately, in clown car fashion, way more people start flipping out of the balloon's basket than ever could have fit in there. Each guy is outfitted in colorful suits befitting of recent productions of Guys and Dolls. The women are outfitted in the same colors, only in dresses. We follow these colorful people as they gymnastic their way through the city and homes, magically transforming everything with colorful products you can get at Target.

The only audio is a very playful version of the French song we learned as kids, "Alouette." It's perfect for the dreary days of mid-winter to think of fun and adding color. At the end they all flip back into the basket and we see the super: "Color changes everything." Even adding in the Target logo is fun, with an overhead shot of the balloon, showing the logo on top of it.

 Target - Color Changes Everything

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. If you have a suggestion for Ad of the Week let us know, here in the comments, via twitter, Facebook or email us at fans@yaffe.com

Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director. 

Direct mail? Telethons? Emails?!?! Who deals with that stuff anymore? The answer is, well, some people. Social media is often lauded as the silver bullet for supporter engagement and cultivation for non-profits today. More-so than a new phenomenon, social media marketing has become the new standard. While the rise of digital has drastically changed the way nonprofits connect with their constituents, old-fashioned techniques still hold sway in this brave new world we are all entering.

Nonprofits such as charity: waterare blazing the trail towards a new online-only donation structure. In its five years of operation, charity: water hasn’t sent out a single piece of direct mail, instead directing donors towards flashy landing pages and custom videos, afterwards following up with an emailed tax receipt. While this digital version of donor cultivation/stewardship is most certainly a vision of the future, a handcrafted postcard, a memorable photograph, or a hand-signed signature from an executive director provide tangible alternatives that are becoming all the more precious in our technology-fueled world. They are also great ways to help donors remember to support your cause in the future.

While there are arguments on both sides of the digital divide, the reality is that a multichannel approach to communicating with your supporters will be the way forward. Integrating digital approaches, such as crowdfunding or mobile optimization, help to make your mission as visible and accessible as possible – while more traditional approaches help to make your cause memorable. When it comes down to it, the old way of doing things is really the new way – provide relevant, heartfelt content that makes your constituents want to support you: with their dollars, their hands or their voices.


Guest Post by nonprofit professional, Chelsea Liddy. Chelsea spends her days staying afloat of the best in social media, technology, and communications for nonprofits, and runs a philanthropy blog here.

Paper Airplanes Photo by Razorfrog

The 2012 Super Bowl and accompanying Brand Bowl has come and gone. There were some good ads and some really bad ads, but none stood out to me as truly great ads. In the last few years, picking a number one ad was either easy because it was a standout or hard because, like last year, there were two standouts (VW Vader spot and Chrysler's Imported from Detroit spot). This year it was hard because I really didn't have strong feelings about any one spot. But be that as it may, here's my top 10 spots and my worst of the year pick.

10. Honda - "Matthew's Day Off"

So many people loved this ad, that I had to make it a top 10. But truthfully, I'm not a big fan. I think part of it was that Honda used VW's Vader kid "leak the spot online" strategy and it backfired. Instead of endearing the spot to me with all the coverage it got before the Super Bowl, I was already tired of it. I think if I saw it and it was a surprise, I might have felt - oh wow, look what they did. Instead, I felt, meh... they took an iconic movie character and reinacted some movie stuff and it didn't tie in to the car at all. If I hadn't looked up the spot, I wouldn't have been able to tell you which car it was.

9. Oikos Greek Yogurt - "The Tease"

This one made the list simply because it's got a woman head butting John Stamos to the floor. And who doesn't want to see that again?

8. The Voice - "Vocal Kombat"

Props to NBC's The Voice for creating something far more engaging than a montage of clips for a show promo. This was entertaining, had high action, cool graphics and still got across the premise of the show, which is the judges fighting to get the best voice to choose them. Love the "Kill Bill" sequences and graphics, down to Cee-Lo's outfit. And the twist at the end made me laugh.

7. Doritos - "Man's Best Friend"

What's the Super Bowl without dog spots. Here's the first one to make my list. One of the winners of Doritos annual Super Bowl ad contest. Clever concept, the dog gives his master Doritos as "hush money" after "offing" the cat. Nice.

6. Sex Sells for H&M and Teleflora

We always see examples of good and bad use of the time honored tradition of sex sells. Here's two good examples - one for the men and one for the ladies. First, there was Teleflora. I would actually call this a great product benefit spot. Guys may think giving flowers is stupid. But, with Valentine's Day coming up, Teleflora reminds us dumb guys the real product benefit of buying flowers, mixing metaphors with Christmas, using the line, "give, and you shall receive."

On the other hand, we have David Beckham for men's underwear for H&M. Now, you may think they're targeting the wrong market - getting the ladies attention for a men's underwear product. But, I'm sure their research shows that most of the men's underwear is actually bought by the women in their lives. Let's face it, most of us guys will keep wearing shabby, holey underwear rather than go buy new stuff. Also, judging by a lot of the tweets I read, a lot of women are buying this stuff just because they're buying whatever he's selling.

5. Chrysler - "Halftime in America"

I have mixed feelings about this one. For one thing, it must have run during the one time I got up and left the set - so I didn't see it in context, just later on the web. It suffers by comparison. Last year's imported from Detroit spot featuring Eminem was so powerful and poignant. Trying to recapture the magic of a special spot is very hard to do. I think they did a valiant job here, but it pales in comparison. For one thing, as someone living in Detroit, I don't remember that "we almost lost it all" - sure time have been tough and we were hit harder than most, but I don't remember ever thinking we were going to lose everything. It's a well written, well produced spot with an icon to lead the charge. But, it's not last year's spot. Not even close.

4. Budweiser - Eternal Optimism

Don't love the beer, but I love this ad. And I wish my clients had this kind of budgets! It's a lot of fun, with a great soundtrack featuring a mash-up The Cult's "She Sells Sanctuary" and Flo Rida's "Good Feelin'." It basically shows that over time, people have always gathered together with their buds for a good time gathering - and often it's involved their favorite beer. It's a spot that works well with Budweiser's tagline "Grab some Buds."

3. Volkswagen - "The Dog Strikes Back"

This is really two spots in one. One spot about a dog that sees the new VW Beetle and really wants to chase it, but needs to get in shape to do so. And another that takes place in a galaxy far, far away. I think VW did a much better job of trying to top last year's special ad, than Chrysler. They didn't succeed either, but I like what they did better. Instead of the new and improved version, they went with a new spot that gives a nod to the old classic. I didn't see the twist at the end coming and I loved it. I know some think they should have just ended it with the dog's story. Personally, I think it could have come off as schmaltzy by itself. With the commercial shifting to the Star Wars bar and a blatant reference to last year's spot - I thought it was great. I also like that the pre-Super Bowl spot released on the web (dogs barking out the Darth Vader theme) was a nice hint to the eventual spot without actually being the spot.

2. Accura - "Transactions"

I originally had this as my number one ad, but upon further review, it turns out I like the Chevy ad better. I did really like this one though. Of all the ads, this one got the biggest laughs from me. Sure, it was a bit over the top. But, Leno in a flying squirrel jet back to steal the deal just as Jerry Seinfeld was about to seal it? Loved it. What can I say, you make me laugh, you're gonna get high marks from me. It's just how I roll.

1. Chevy Silverado - "2012 Mayan Calendar"

I love this ad. Talk about a brand promise - buy our product and survive the apocalypse. Sure, it's not realistic, but it's fun. And I don't mind at all that they took a poke at the competition. I come from a rural area where guys drive trucks and if you're a Chevy guy, you look at the Ford and Dodge guys with disdain and vise versa. It just taps into the target market mindset.

I like that they took something topical like the predicted end of the world and had fun with it. They didn't just stick with one reason either - you see alien spacecraft, volcanoes, meteors and even the more biblical rain of frogs. Loved the burning Big Boy statue and a play on the old joke (and recent Zombie movie) idea that one of the things that will last forever is twinkies. Nice co-branding opportunity, too, I'm sure. Added bonus for the counter intuitive Barry Manalow track.

And 1 Ugly One.

That's my take on the best spots. There were plenty of disappointments, too. I think the eTrade baby spots have lost their luster. Career Builder brought back the chimps and it wasn't bad, but it was just a rehash of previous spots. I thought the Cars.com one with the extra head singing was just creepy. But one advertiser was just ugly. I bet you know who it was. Go Daddy once again stunk up the place with horrible ads that just ticked off at least half of the possible customers right off the bat. As one woman tweeted, "what? Women don't buy domain names?" Where H&M and Teleflora (and even Fiat) used sex to sell in a good way, these people use it all wrong. Their spots are sexist. They play the bait and switch game - Oooo, come to our website and maybe you'll see these women naked (you won't). And to make matters worse, it's just bad, reheated creative. They've basically run the same idea for I don't know how many Super Bowls now. Time to banish them from the event, if you ask me.

So, what were your favorites? Did I miss some? Do you think I'm a moron for including one of these? I'd love to hear your take on the best and worst of 2012 Super Bowl ads.

Mike McClure, Ad Junkie

Apparently there was an Audi outdoor board that showed their new answer to luxury cars and had the words "Your Move, BMW." Well, the local BMW dealer made their move and it was a good one. They bought a bigger board right across the street and put their answer on it. And their message was "Checkmate" - game over. I don't know if it was actually the local dealership or the brand made the move and tagged it with the local dealer. Either way, nicely played, BMW, nicely played.

Santa Monica BMW - "Checkmate"

Reminds us all to be careful when poking the giant with a stick. Sometimes they wake up and poke back. What good rebuttle ads have you seen?

Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director

Each weekend, they give a car from one of their dealerships to a local blogger and social media influencer as part of their social test drive program. In return, they ask that when you tweet, facebook, foursquare or whatever, you use the hashtag they created for the program: #SocialTestDrive. They don't put any restrictions on what you write or blog about, which is the only way to do it right. They let their product and service speak for itself and trust that it will result in a good experience for the recipient of the vehicle.

The Suburban Collection has only been doing this for about four weeks now, but they are already seeing good results. After their first week, they sold a couple vehicles as a direct result of the program. One of the guys who bought after following the first week's social test drive online said he came in because the experience he witnessed through the social channels seemed to be a good one. He had had a bad experience at Suburban in the past, but after reading the posts, he decided to give them another try. This time, he had a real good experience. The vehicle he bought wasn't even the one that was being test driven that weekend. But, the experience he'd followed through social media seemed good enough to give Suburban another shot.

"Our goal is to just be a part of the conversation," says Zac Holmes, Online Marketing Coordinator at Suburban. "People hang out online, live there, interact there - that's where you'll find them. We wanted to reach out to them in the space they're already occupying and connect them to our brand."

One of the smart things Suburban is doing is the way they recruit the people to participate in their program. They do it by having the person who just finished the program choose the next one, giving them the additional perk of sharing the experience with their friends. Plus, they get a list of influencers already vetted for them. Who else would know the local blogger/social media influencer landscape better than those who are a part of it.

"People are a lot more likely to believe a review if you hear it from someone you know or follow, rather than from the brand itself," said Holmes. "It's more realistic when it's coming from them. We also wanted to put people in vehicles they might not try otherwise. This makes driving part of the buying experience - whether it's actually driving the vehicle or driving it vicariously through following along with the driver online."

I have first hand experience in how the process works, since I participated in their social test drive program last weekend, driving a hybrid Honda Insight from Suburban Honda. I had followed the previous weekend's driver, fellow social media and ad guy, Bryan Willmert, on his social test drive (mostly through Instagram) and had enjoyed his story. Then, to my surprise the following week I got a tweet from both Zac and the Suburban Collection asking if I'd like to participate. Obviously, I said yes. And it was a pretty good experience.

They gave me a choice of several different brands. Once I chose Honda, they asked what I was driving and suggested four different models that I might like to test drive. I was interested in checking out their hybrid, the Honda Insight. When I showed up, they walked me through the vehicle and how to work all the options. They shot a video of me with the car and sent me on my way.

It was interesting to see the interaction I got. On my first day (last Friday), I had to go downtown Detroit for a lunch meeting. I tweeted out where I was going and the car I was in. I immediately got feedback via twitter. One person I know tweeted me that they were a half mile away from my meeting, could I stop by while there. I swung by and let him take the Insight for a tool around the city. Once that was done another tweeted for "nexties" and another wanted to see it and we hooked up the following day at the auto show. So, the most immediate feedback came via twitter - including from people outside of my own followers, people who were following the hashtag, either promoted by Suburban or via previous test drivers.

Longer discussions, with more in depth questions, came on the Facebook messages/pictures I posted. And for shear volume, my Instagram posts seemed to get the most reactions - including again, from people I had no idea who they were. They were just fans of the car or the brand.

Talking with Holmes, who works with four of the Suburban Collection dealerships in the Detroit area (Honda, Acura, Ford and Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge/Ram), his group has enthusiastically embraced the program and plans to continue it with one or two social test drivers each week. Judging from my experience and the reaction to it, I'd say they're on to something. It's a good way to connect with your local community in a very real way and really boost your share of conversation online. So, think about it. How can you accomplish the same for your local brand/client?

Mike McClure, Social Driver

Last week we dipped our toes into an ever-changing and exciting world of Mobile Marketing.  You enter Part 2 of the Mobile series, armed with knockout customer insights and a vocabulary full of jargon terms you already used to impress everyone at Monday’s department meeting.  The next step is to build a proper Mobile webpage, which will not only convert potential clients into paying customers, but increase positive association with your brand.

Seeing Through Your Customers’ Eyes
Access your website through a Mobile device, and see it through the customer’s eyes. As expected, the design and layout of what looks good on a personal computer doesn’t translate well into mobile experience.  If you’re squinting to see the font, so are your frustrated customers. If you’re having trouble navigating through the pages, your customers are contemplating checking out your competitor. If the page is still loading by the time you finish this paragraph, the customer already left.

Cashing In on the Insights
The insights you gathered are a blueprint for your website. After monitoring and analyzing your traffic through Google, you will know what mobile devices your customers are using. iPhone, Android, Blackberry or tablets have different  strengths and weaknesses, so it’s crucial you understand them. For instance: if your customers are primarily using an iPhone, keep in mind that it cannot run Flash (so don’t use it).  Android and iPhone use touchscreen navigation, while Blackberries might not.

Satisfying a Need
Looking at your Mobile Segmentation analysis, ask what NEED does your website satisfy for your customer? Depending on your insights you may arrive at different conclusions. If your customers frequently get lost while trying to find your location, they access your mobile website for directions or your phone number. If that’s the case, make sure that the first page that loads has your phone number and directions.   If they are looking for prices, make it brain-dead easy for them to find and buy items. If they’re looking for coupons, you can offer a special for signing on Foursquare or “Liking” you on Facebook/ following you on Twitter.  Satisfying their need is your first priority. Users who cannot find what they are looking for or are have trouble navigating through the store check-outs, often leave halfway through the transaction, never to return.

Keep it simple. I mean it.
Everybody knows your cool website has flashy graphics, ready-to-download case studies and well-written bios, but nobody wants to see it on their smartphone.  Slow connection speeds and pay-per-byte data plans will make the experience of going to your website expensive and unbearably slow. Keep the graphics to a minimum and focus on satisfying the customer’s needs.

Small Screens = Large Fonts
Unless your customers are rocking an iPad, they’ll have a hard time seeing anything written in regular font.  Make the font larger, and test it on mobile devices. Your mobile page should fit neatly into the screen of the hand-held device and spitting out easily-digestible content. Buttons, links and navigation tools should also be bigger to make navigation between pages easier (especially with touch-screen devices).

Click to Call
If you’re listing a phone number that the customer might want to contact you with, make sure that it’s “click to call.” Once the customer clicks (or touches) the phone number they will have an option to automatically dial it, eliminating the hassle to write it down(while driving).

Listen to Feedback
The biggest mistake you can make is ignore your customers while building a mobile website specifically designed for them. Involve them in the process by asking about and monitoring their mobile use. When the beta version of your website comes out, bring in a few loyal customers you trust and test it out. Observe and improve.

Deep Thoughts About Ending Paragraphs
If you haven’t found a mobile development expert within your department’—congratulations you are the new mobile web development expert of your department! As the newly-crowned mobile expert it is your responsibility to enlist support of digital advertising veterans to make this thing a reality (what about The Yaffe Group? I hear they’re pretty good). Stay tuned, next week brings the final installment of the Mobile Series. Use the internet-comment-machine below to post your mobile thoughts.

Read part 3 of this series: "3 Successful Mobile Case Studies & What You Can Learn From Them"


 Dmitri Pivtorak, Socially Mobile

For most of us the 2012 resolutions look like this: lay off Hot Pockets, earn a ton of money and make a diligent effort to smile when your mother-in-law unexpectedly shows up on your doorstep for a visit. When it comes to resolutions for your business Mobile Marketing should be at the top of your list— especially if you’re playing catch up with competition. Last year was huge for mobile marketing and it’s getting even bigger. Technology innovations make it easy to shop, stay social, informed and entertained anywhere and anytime.  Smartphones drive our life on-the-go and with it present constant opportunities to advertise. Why wouldn’t you reach your customer through something they carry and interact with every waking (and sometimes sleeping) moment?

Watch the video below to see some amazing mobile stats

Know your mobile customer
Gen-Y facetweets, youblogs, and mysquares faster than you can log into your email, while Grandma is still figuring out the whole webcam thing. Each customer uses a smartphone to satisfy a NEED while being restricted or empowered by their aptitude for technology.  The game hasn’t changed, customers are still shopping, but they’re using mobile to simplify and enrich their experience.

Tracking mobile visitors
First step is to assess the situation. You might not know that people are accessing your website through mobile devices unless you have a way to track it. Meet your new best friend, Google Analytics. Study your traffic under the microscope and establish a baseline. What devices are your customers using? How does your marketing strategy affect traffic? Through analytics you will understand the current situation and pave way for future decisions.

 Identifying Mobile Segments
The wonderful thing about customers is that they can be grouped together into segments.  After you ninja your way through demographic/geo profiles think about the following.  

Psychographic and motivational segmentation will force you to step into the shoes of your customer and focus on their attitudes, goals and emotional features.
-Think about what your users seek through their mobile devices: entertainment, information, social or a bargain. For instance, customers seeking a bargain may not like mobile technology, but will use it anyway if there is a reward (like a coupon or a discount).
-Is the customer skating on the high tech edge or staying away from technology because it invades their privacy? For example: Social oriented high tech users would be more likely to check in on foursquare  at your store location, which presents a valuable opportunity to engage them.
-Is mobile a lifestyle choice or something they are forced to use? Gen Y vs Late adopters.
-In addition to insights you gather from this exercise, create a map to key customer touch points with your brand. Map out customer’s mobile shopping experience from interest about your product to purchasing decision. 
-Do they browse and compare prices on the phone before purchasing? What brought them to your website? Was it to find store locations, order online, get a deal or check in on foursquare? How did they find out about it? Through company’s e-letter, a chat with company rep, QR code or external advertising?

I leave you with many questions to answer and priorities to fulfill.  Moving forward in the Mobile Resolutions series, you’ll learn about mobile websites and implementing mobile advertising strategies.  In the meantime, share some of your mobile experiences in the comment section and give Grandma a call, she  still needs help.

Read parts 2 and 3 of this series: "Building a Mobile Friendly Website" and "3 Successful Mobile Case Studies & What You Can Learn From Them"
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Dmitri Pivtorak, On the move, going mobile

There was no doubt this ad would become one of my ads of the week. When I first saw it at home, I kept backing it up on the DVR and replaying it. Made me smile every time. Of course, there's no way it could lose. First off, if you follow my Ad of the Week posts, you know I love the ads Google has been doing for the last few years. I think they produce some of the most consistently wonderful advertising out there. Every ad tells a story that connects well with it's audience.

But the ad for Google+ with the Muppets doing a hangout while playing along with the Queen/David Bowie classic "Under Pressure" seems like it's targeted specifically at me. For one thing, I'm a HUGE Muppets fan. I love almost everything they do. I'm also a huge David Bowie fan and Under Pressure is one of my favorite songs of all time.

Yet, I don't think Google was talking just to me. Seems a lot of people love this ad. Which is part of my initial point. Google just knows how to connect well with people. Maybe it's because they know so much about us, given all the data they're able to collect. But, in their advertising at least, they seem to be using the info for good, not evil. So, in my completely biased opinion, here's one of the best ads of the last year.

 Google+ - Muppets Rock Out in a Hangout

So, what did you think? Love it as much as I do? Or is there another ad out there you think is better? Let me know, maybe your favorite will end up as a future ad of the week.

Mike McClure - Self-admitted Muppet Maniac

This spot reminded me that though it's our job as advertisers to solve customers' problems, there's a fine line between solving a problem and exacerbating the problem by embellishing it over, and over, and over again.

Sometimes we shop because we have a problem that needs solving. That's generally true everyday of the year. But that's not how any of us really want to think about Christmas. Even though Macy's campaign evokes the magical spirit of Christmas for children, it inspires all of us in the process to WANT to buy. Not have to. And under which circumstance would you prefer to bring people into your store?

The fact that they also built in an in-store magical red box that brings the inspiration (and customers) into the stores AND gives back to charity—win, win, win.

Watch, be inspired, shop, and Happy Holidays, all!

 Jen Wright, Inspired Yaffe Account gal