By James Citron, CEO of Mogreet
Twitter @JamesCitron
The two teams battling each other on Super Bowl Sunday will be pulling their best strategies out of their playbooks, and they’re not alone. The biggest advertisers will be showcasing their most prized commercials hoping for a victory amongst their competitors. Brands and agencies will attempt to deliver the most creative and innovative campaigns to drive viewers in store, to websites, and ensure their brand customers win mindshare amongst viewers.
More than ever before, the conversation about the top advertising campaigns will take place over mobile with millions of tweets, Facebook posts, Pinterest pins and text messages exchanged amongst friends.With nearly every Super Bowl viewer watching the game with their mobile device within arm’s reach, it’s time for mobile marketing to enter into the playbook of all Super Bowl advertisers.
Which mobile marketing tools have the power to win over viewers this year? Let’s review common mobile marketing strategies available today and how they can be used successfully during the Big Game:
QR
If you haven’t noticed, everyone seems to be testing their luck using QR codes on posters, billboards and even clothes. If you can name it, there’s probably been a QR code on it! QR codes can be sexy and make your company seem tech-savvy, but when it’s poorly executed, it can hurt your brand image. Unfortunately, a 30 second spot is too brief for a viewer to grab their phone, find their QR app, and then get a steady scan of the barcode to read it.
Recommendation: Use QR on static media surrounding the Big Game (i.e. billboards, tray liners, etc.) to enhance the experience (i.e. how about a recipe for the hottest wings on your bottle of BBQ sauce?) where a quick reaction from a consumer isn’t a requirement for success.
Apps
Apps provide endless opportunities for interactive games, advertisements and engagement. But the main barrier to app adoption is their ubiquity since 60% of Americans have feature phones and creating aps for all smartphone platforms is a tall (and expensive) order for even the savviest marketers. Furthermore, in crowded environments with weak cell coverage, asking your customers to download an app can be a very frustrating consumer experience (ever tried downloading an application at a crowded stadium?)
Recommendation: A 100% app strategy won’t reach all of your users, so create apps targeted to your most loyal consumers to enhance their brand loyalty and tie into the unique capabilities of a handset than other tactics cannot (i.e. accelerometer, camera, etc.)
Mobile websites:
Most advertisers today include their website in their advertising. As an advertiser on game day, you should expect your customer visiting your site to be coming from a mobile device. (Websites ranging from Google Maps to ESPN routinely experience over half of their traffic from mobile devices.) This means that it’s absolutely essential to have a mobile optimized site, or direct users to a mobile optimized landing page during the Big Game.
Recommendation: When building your mobile site, focus on simple navigation, high value content (i.e. video, offers, etc.) and provide a vehicle to opt your consumers into a mobile database for future remarketing. You only have a few seconds to keep your mobile visitors’ attention, so it’s vital to enable them to find what they want as quickly as possible.
Messaging
The mobile strategy with widest reach and the fastest response time for consumers is mobile messaging, including SMS and MMS. Mobile messaging can reach 97% of US mobile consumers. Since nearly everyone in the country knows how to send a text message, advertisers looking to get a quick reaction from a consumer should be including a short code in their ad enabling anyone to quickly text in for more information. Furthermore, MMS messaging enables the advertiser to deliver back to the interested consumer a high quality video, song, flipbook and/or thousands of character message.
Recommendation: Use messaging and in particular, MMS, to have the highest response rate and largest reach of any mobile marketing tactic that is focused on your entire audience. Pick some exclusive content or offer (i.e. behind the scenes GoDaddy video, a coupon for a free appetizer, etc.) and begin to build a relationship with your audience through messaging and convert them in a long-term customer relationship.
Mobile & Social Sharing
Mobile marketing enables your message to go viral since all of your audience’s friends, acquaintances and family are only a text, tweet, or Facebook like away from spreading the message! By integrating these tools into your marketing, your audience will do the heavy lifting and expand the reach of your message!
Recommendation: Integrate Facebook, Twitter and moShare buttons in your mobile messaging, mobile website, and mobile applications to enable all of your content to be spread virally and socially.
As advertisers, your Super Bowl victory will be judged by the ROI of your advertising campaign. The advertisers that will win this year’s game will be the ones that deliver the best mobile experiences to their customers.
