New data shows surge in holiday mobile searches and ad clicks, signals marketer opportunity

Thursday, November 1, 2012 | 10:01 AM

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With the holiday season just weeks away, we sought out to understand how mobile behavior changes during national holidays throughout the year, particularly when people have a day off from work or school. What we found was a surge in activity on tablets and smartphones during these holidays, showing that when people are away from the office kicking back at home or out shopping, they increasingly turn to their smartphones and tablets nearby. More surprisingly, while we consistently saw mobile searches spike on holidays, we discovered an even more pronounced surge in mobile ad clicks, signaling that people are particularly interested in shopping and connecting with businesses.

For example, while Americans celebrated Labor Day this year with barbecues, family trips and shopping, they also often turned to their mobile devices nearby. Searches on smartphones were 7% higher compared to those on a typical Monday, and searches on tablets jumped by 25%. But perhaps more interestingly, clicks on mobile ads spiked even more dramatically in comparison to other average days. The chart below shows that on Labor Day, ad clicks on smartphones grew 9% compared to the average number of ad clicks on a typical Monday, while ad clicks on tablets jumped 39%.



This means that not only are people searching more on their mobile devices during holidays, but they’re actively looking to connect with businesses. So whether shoppers are using their free time to pick up a last-minute gift or buy holiday party supplies, this behavior presents an important opportunity for marketers to engage the mobile shopper.

We see these same mobile trends during holidays throughout the year, but find that they’re particularly pronounced on big shopping days like Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. For example, while smartphone searches last Black Friday rose by 17% compared to a normal day, ad clicks on smartphones that day jumped by 61%. Likewise, while tablet searches rose by 40% last Black Friday, clicks on tablet ads shot up by more than 100%, and stayed above average in the days following.


So what does all of this mean for businesses? Quite simply, it means that with people turning to more devices during the holidays, there are more opportunities for them to find and connect with you, whether they’re at home or on the go. Here are a few things that you can do to make sure you’re ready:

  1. Make sure that you have campaigns or new ad text for your holiday promotions or messages.
  2. Increase your budget cap on holidays to account for additional clicks.
  3. Adopt an always-on strategy to make sure your budget lasts throughout the day. Consumers are researching and shopping at any time throughout the day and you should make sure you can be found.
  4. Segment your historic campaign performance by device to understand how people interact with you across different devices like smartphones and tablets, and tweak your campaigns accordingly to capitalize.
  5. Expand keyword lists to include holiday-related terms and ensure you have keyword parity between your desktop and mobile campaigns so you’re reaching potential customers regardless of what device they’re using.

Posted by Ben Taggart, Mobile Analyst

Re-imagining Google Analytics to support the versatile usage patterns of today's users

Wednesday, October 31, 2012 | 6:12 PM

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Cross posted from the Google Analytics Blog

A typical consumer today uses multiple devices to surf the web and interact in many ways with your business. For most large businesses, already swimming in many sources of hashed data, it’s an enormous challenge, but also an incredible opportunity. 

Measurement today is evolving from technology that counts site traffic into a broader system that measures your effectiveness in advertising, sales, product usage, support, and retention. Ultimately, this sort of integrated measurement can help you deliver the best service, products, and experiences for your customers.

We’ve been developing solutions, like Google Analytics Premium and Mobile App Analytics to advance this vision. For large enterprises, such as Premium customers and those who want to work with APIs, we're now starting to offer “Universal Analytics.” This will help these customers tailor Google Analytics to their needs, integrate their own datasets and ultimately get a more complete vision of the entire marketing funnel.

The new tools offered by Universal Analytics via the new Measurement Protocol (an API that enables you to send your data to Google Analytics) can help you measure the how people actually become and remain loyal customers:
  • Consumers use multiple devices.
Mastering data on your website is no longer sufficient - larger clients are increasingly asking for a cross platform view of their data in Analytics. The tools from the Measurement Protocol allow you to seamlessly send your own data about your customers  and business (from any digital device that you are measuring) to your Analytics account. This can help you see how users interact with your brand from multiple touchpoints - phones, tablets, laptops or more - in one place. 
  • The world is mobile.
We announced Mobile App Analytics at I/O in 2012 as a beta. It’s been delivering great results for clients. Universal Analytics now enables you to measure your marketing more holistically by integrating this data with your Google Analytics account. 
  • Cross-channel measurement is essential.
Cross-channel information is more important and more diverse than ever before. Universal Analytics, via the Measurement Protocol, lets you sync your own data from across various marketing channels, so you can discover relationships between the channels that drive conversions.
  • Your business is unique. 
Not every campaign (or app, or website!) is the same, and sometimes, depending on your business and goals, you want to learn more about a particular aspect of the way visitors interact with your business. With Universal Analytics, you can integrate your own data and can customize the metrics that matter to you - beyond website visits.  Google Analytics can deliver the custom metrics you want, in the same report you’re used to, based on the customized data you provide.

As a Google Analytics user, Universal Analytics won’t mean any changes in your account. But if you’re a large enterprise that is interested in exploring the integration options, you can request access to the Universal Analytics beta. You can also learn more in our help center.

Posted by Manav Mishra, Group Product Manager, Google Analytics

Measuring app usage with new reports and SDK from Google Analytics

Thursday, October 25, 2012 | 7:00 AM

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Google Analytics helps you measure value across all the steps a user takes between app download and your ultimate goal. Whether you’re hoping users will purchase in-app, level up in your game or register for your service, Mobile App Analytics points out what’s impeding and aiding users along their paths to your ultimate goal. On Tuesday, we presented a webinar, “Understanding your App Users with Google Analytics” about ways to promote your mobile app with AdWords. Led by Jessica Sapick, Mobile Ads Product Marketer, and Chrix Finne, Mobile Ads Product Manager, the webinar explained how to use Mobile App Analytics to iterate on app development and marketing.

Attendees learned:

  1. How to set up a Mobile App Analytics account
  2. The benefits of the new software development kit
  3. How to use the new app overview, engagement, Google Play sources, device and network, engagement flow, loyalty, and crash and exception reports
  4. How to use analytics data to assess and iterate on advertising strategies

To learn more, download the webinar slides or watch the recording on the Google Business YouTube Channel.

Posted by Jessica Sapick, Product Marketing Manager

iOS app promoters can now measure downloads with AdWords

Wednesday, October 24, 2012 | 7:00 AM

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Apps are a powerful way to keep your most loyal users engaged, and can also be a real driver of revenue for marketers big and small. When advertising apps, the key is to know what’s working and what’s not. While advertisers have already been able to measure their Android app downloads within AdWords, we’ve now launched the ability to track iOS downloads that were driven by in-app display ad campaigns.

To set up iOS conversion tracking, advertisers need to create a single code snippet in their AdWords account and install it in their app. This snippet is accessible in the AdWords interface in the same place where advertisers have been able to codelessly track Android downloads. With iOS conversion tracking, marketers can better understand which campaigns are most effective at driving app downloads. These enhanced insights help marketers iterate on app promotion strategies to reach their return on investment goals, with the help of features like the Conversion Optimizer for apps.   

Figuring out what ads are working is key for marketers like Sho Masuda, Vice President of Player Marketing for GREE, a leading mobile social game app developer. GREE has used click to download and in-app advertising solutions with AdWords to promote their app, and Masuda says, "Google’s host of tracking and optimization tools help us quickly iterate and maximize ROI across our app promotion campaigns. iOS conversion tracking will help us gain even deeper insights into our Google app promotion efforts for our iOS apps."


If you’d like to learn more about how to track value beyond the app download, you can watch a recording of our Learn with Google webinar “Understanding your App Users with Google Analyticshere.

Posted by Morgan Hallmon, Product Manager

Upcoming Learn with Google webinar: Understanding your app users with Google Analytics

Friday, October 19, 2012 | 6:00 AM

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With more than one million apps available across the Google Play and Apple App stores, and users spending nearly half a day each month using apps, the message is clear: users like apps, especially when what they want is right at their fingertips.  Google Analytics for mobile apps equips marketers and app developers with tools to help users find what they’re after, cultivate loyalty and convert more app downloads into purchases, sign-ups and other desired user actions.

Join Google on Tuesday, October 23rd (10am PT/1pm ET) for a webinar about how you can use Google Analytics to measure in-app user activity.

The webinar will walk you through setting up a Google Analytics for mobile apps account, explain how to use the new reports to translate data into insights and give you a chance to ask your burning app analytics questions.  

Sign up for our webinar today by registering here.

We look forward to seeing you on October 23rd!

Posted by Jessica Sapick, Product Marketing Manager, Google Mobile Ads

During debates voters turn to mobile for instant answers

Thursday, October 18, 2012 | 11:31 AM

While it’s easy to get caught up by the passion and finger pointing in Tuesday night’s debate, it’s important to remember the real purpose of a presidential debate - educating and informing the American people.

We wanted to understand how viewers use their smartphones and tablets as ‘second screens’ to research and fact-check topics during and after the debate. So we took a look at debate-related search queries coming from mobile devices on Tuesday and found that:  


  • Mobile has become a central component of this year’s election
    • 2,000% increase in debate-related searches on mobile in 2012 vs. 2008

  • Mobile helps voters find spur-of-the-moment information
    • 3,300% increase in searches related to Libya immediately after the question about presidential accountability for the Benghazi attack

  • Mobile is used simultaneously with television
    • 47% of Tuesday’s elections-related mobile searches occurred during and immediately after the debate

Mobile devices: our couch companions

Already this election season, we’re seeing voters research issues, find information, and even register to vote across desktop, smartphone, tablet and television. This data reinforces the need for political campaigns to engage voters across all four screens - especially during key campaign events. With the portability of mobile devices, many people are using them while watching television to search for follow-up information or to fact-check. The debates were a great example of this mobile multi-tasking as people turned to their mobile devices in real time to find more information about the comments and issues raised by the candidates. Looking at a timeline of searches for a specific issue like energy throughout the debate, we can see that the spikes in searches occur in direct response to specific conversation sparks on television.


Click to enlarge


Immediate information

In addition to being used in front of the television, people turn to their mobile devices when they’re looking for immediate information. The “always-on” nature of tablets and “always with you” nature of smartphones make them quick and easy to pick up for a spontaneous search. During the debate we saw enormous spikes in mobile queries immediately after panelist questions or statements from the candidates. For example, within one minute of Mary Fallano’s question to Romney about his tax plan, tax-related mobile searches increased by over 500%. This is true not just while watching the debates, but also throughout the day as people use their smartphones while talking about politics with friends, listening to the news, or even after coming across an offline ad.

Four screens to victory

As we enter the final weeks of the presidential election, digital devices will be key to helping voters decide which candidate is right for them. It’s a well-known fact that one of the keys to a successful candidacy is controlling the message. What’s clear in today’s multi-screen world, is that controlling the message on any issue requires that a candidate have a strategy to engage with voters across all four screens.


Posted by: Adam Grunewald, Mobile Ads Marketing

Win moments that matter with Learn with Google mobile webinars

Monday, October 15, 2012 | 6:30 AM

As we’re nearing the end of 2012, we’ve all got business goals to meet. Some of you might even be prepping for your busiest season. Last week, Learn with Google announced a new series of webinars which will arm you with the tools you need to get the most out of your holiday ad dollars. Over the next couple of months, 20 webinars will teach you tips and how-to’s to help make the web work for your business. Three of these webinars will focus on our favorite topic - mobile!

The Google Mobile Ads team is excited to be partnering with Learn with Google on the following upcoming webinars:

  • Tues, October 23rd: Understanding your App Users with Google Analytics
  • Thurs, November 29th: New Tablet Research: How to Win on the Third Screen
  • Wed, December 5th: Capturing the Full Value of Mobile with Click-to-Call and Call Metrics

All webinars will take place at 10am PT/ 1pm ET.  

Visit the webinar page for more information and to register. You can also stay up-to-date on the schedule by adding the Learn with Google Webinar calendar to your own Google calendar to automatically see future webinars.

We’re looking forward to seeing you at an upcoming session!

Posted by: Erin Molnar, Marketing Coordinator, Learn with Google

The Mobile Playbook: Updated with new strategies on mobile creativity and ROI

Tuesday, October 9, 2012 | 6:00 AM

Earlier this year, we launched The Mobile Playbook in the US to help brands and agencies develop winning mobile strategies. At the time, most marketers had already moved beyond the “why mobile?” question, but didn’t know where or how to get started. Now it’s become clear that, when done right, mobile works for marketers. As the industry has evolved, we’re seeing examples of marketers designing compelling mobile creatives, and how savvy advertisers are finding ways to measure the real value that mobile has on their businesses. These are two areas that have been top of mind for the thousands of marketers that we’ve talked with and we’re excited to expand the playbook to delve deeper into these topics.

In The Full Value of Mobile section, we dive into the range of mobile conversions possible today and how they provide economic value to businesses in ways that marketers may not realize. For example, Adidas worked with iProspect to evaluate how mobile clicks on their store locator links were driving in-store sales, and ultimately found that each mobile store locator click was worth $3.20.

With mobile debuting as a new category at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity this year, it’s clear that mobile has truly arrived as a creative platform. According to Terry Savage, Chairman of Cannes Lions, "We're now starting to see some marketers build incredibly engaging and immersive creative for mobile. We sought out to celebrate these great mobile creatives at Cannes Lions this year and inspire others to think about how to bring their brands to life on mobile." The Mobile Creativity section explains why mobile is unique and powerful from a creative perspective, and shares examples of how marketers from around the world have used mobile to bring their brands to life.  

The Mobile Playbook was created as a one-stop resource to spotlight brands that are making mobile work for them and to reflect our latest recommendations on how marketers can approach mobile strategically. We’ve also rolled out international versions of The Mobile Playbook across different countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, France, and the UK, and will bring the playbook to Japan, Australia and Italy over the coming weeks. We welcome your input, and will keep adapting the playbook as the industry continues to evolve.

Posted by: Jason Spero, Head of Global Mobile Sales & Strategy

GoMo webinar recap: Mobilize your site and maximize your advertising

Thursday, October 4, 2012 | 9:00 AM

Did you see our new research emphasizing why it’s important for businesses to ‘Go Mo’ and build a mobile-friendly site? Last week we featured a study - What Users Want Most From Mobile Sites Today - in a live webinar. Powerful insights included how a mobile site can turn your users into customers:

  • 67% of mobile users are more likely to buy a site’s product or service when they visit a mobile site;
  • 74% say they’re more likely to return to a mobile site in future.

If you missed it, no problem, you can watch watch the recording instead.

We created the GoMo initiative to help businesses understand why having a mobile site is important and how to get started. The site is a starting point for you to:

  • research why mobile sites matter;
  • test your site on the GoMoMeter to see how it looks on a mobile device;
  • get a free, personalized report about how to tailor your site for mobile users;
  • build a free mobile site in minutes.

We’ve gotten great feedback from businesses about the resource, and we’re thrilled to hear that it recently won a 2012 OMMA Award for the best business-to-business integrated online campaign.

So whether you’re ready to get started, or just thinking about it for the first time today, take a look at howtogomo.com.


Posted by: Michael Schipper, Product Marketing Manager, and Suzanne Mumford, Product Marketing Manager

Mobile and...anthropology?

Tuesday, October 2, 2012 | 7:00 AM

In this increasingly mobile world, it’s important for marketers to understand what consumers are doing on their mobile devices.  We recently took a close look at this question in a number of different research studies - Our Mobile Planet, The New Multi-Screen World, What Users Want From Mobile Sites Today.  But as we talked with marketers and agencies, especially creative agency folks, we realized there was another important question to answer: why is the mobile space so powerful at a deeper, more emotional level?  And how are people finding and making meaning there?  These are important questions because it’s hard to tell emotionally resonant stories about brands on mobile unless we understand the resonance of the mobile space itself.

So what is the meaning of mobile?  That’s a big and complex question, but to start scratching the surface we sought the help of an anthropologist who went into the homes of mobile users and spoke with them at length, observing their device interactions and asking them to keep “mobile diaries” to understand the role mobile is playing in their lives.  From this investigation, we gained some valuable insights that we hope will help strategic planners and creatives better understand how to make use of the mobile space.  For example: Have you ever thought about how miniature items tend to possess the power to unlock imaginations, and how this dynamic plays out with the smallness of our phones?  Or how our smartphones enable us to indulge in our innate desire to “read” and “write” meanings onto our physical surroundings?  (We hadn’t either.)

We’ve shared our findings with strategic planners and marketers at Cannes, Advertising Week, and at a handful of creative agencies.  Today, we are excited to share our insights with you through a new whitepaper that tells the story of what we found -- how mobile is helping us achieve our self-ideals, co-create culture with our communities, and make sense of the physical world around us.  




We invite you to put on your anthropologist's hat and to think about mobile in a new and different way.  Perhaps some of the findings will inspire you to think about the ways that you can connect with your customers in the mobile space.  We’d love for you to join the dialogue and share your thoughts.  

Posted by: Jesse Haines, Head of Marketing, Mobile Ads, and Abigail Posner, Head of Strategic Planning, Agency Development

Give mobile users what they want: clearer, simpler, faster sites

Thursday, September 27, 2012 | 6:00 AM

Earlier this week we shared how today's consumers expect more -- much more -- from mobile sites. They told us so in our recent research survey, What Users Want Most From Mobile Sites Today.

Today we'll share more results, with some great examples of businesses giving mobile users what they want. Whether you're a Fortune 500 company or the pizza shop down on the corner, creating a mobile-friendly site is a critical step: 67% of mobile users say that they’re more likely to buy a product or service from a mobile-friendly site, and 74% say they’re more likely to return to that site in the future.

How are smart companies making mobile sites work for them?

  • Less is more: ProFlowers For their new mobile site, the flower retailer ProFlowers simplified things by highlighting the most popular bouquets to reduce scrolling, by trimming text, and by cutting checkout steps. How well has it worked? “Since becoming mobile-friendly, we’ve seen our mobile conversion rate jump by 20–30%," says Leif Heikkila, the company's senior director of online marketing. Download the case study.
  • Bigger is better: FragranceNet.com FragranceNet sells perfumes and colognes, yes, but also face creams, shampoos, eyeliner and more. For Michael Nadboy, the company's VP of online marketing and strategic development, the trick to mobile success was to show bigger product images and buttons, larger font sizes, and fewer images overall. Mobile users loved it: FragranceNet boosted mobile sales by 48% in just four months. Download the case study.

  • Speed sells: TicketNetwork
  • Rock concerts, Broadway shows, NASCAR races: TicketNetwork’s mobile site helps on-the-go fans find tickets for them all. The company redesigned its mobile site with speed in mind, stripping away all non-essential content and graphics. They also trimmed steps from the checkout process to help mobile users buy fast. Four months after introducing the new mobile site, web traffic from mobile devices was up 120% and overall sales from mobile had grown by 184%. Download the case study.

You can see the keys to mobile site success: big buttons and text, less content, fewer steps to checkout, and a focus on speed.

What kind of mobile content is most important? The users we surveyed listed "Get directions”, “Find operating hours" and “Click to call the business” as some of their most-wanted mobile tasks. They also showed clear differences in mobile usage by business category. For instance:

Mobile Banking and Finance customers are most interested in checking account balances, transferring money and paying bills.

Mobile Travel customers are most interested in checking flight status and confirming reservations.

Mobile Retail customers like to contact a store and find product information.
Mobile Automotive customers are most interested in contacting the dealership and making service appointments.
The bottom line: mobile users are ready to make choices on the go. Help them get there fast and you'll help your business grow.

We reviewed these findings yesterday during our webinar: Mobilize your Site and Maximize your Advertising. If you missed it, please keep an eye out for the recorded webinar, which we'll post soon.

In the meantime, check out howtogomo.com for more tips on how to build a mobile-friendly website.

Posted by: Masha Fisch, Google Mobile Ads Marketing

New Google AdMob SDK for iOS, with support for iOS 6

Wednesday, September 26, 2012 | 4:48 PM

Today we’re releasing version 6.2 of our Google AdMob SDK for iOS developers.  This release contains maintenance updates and adds compatibility with iOS 6, in addition to continued support for iOS 5.

We are adopting Apple’s new Identifier for Advertising (IDFA) on devices running iOS 6.  SDK 6.2 will continue to use the unique device identifier (UDID) for devices running iOS 5 and below. Developers must obtain appropriate user consent for sending device identifier information in compliance with relevant iOS policies.

The new SDK is available for download here.  We encourage our developer partners to upgrade to the latest SDK as soon as possible. For full technical details of today’s release, please see our post on the Ads Developer Blog.

Post by: Chrix Finne, Mobile Ads Product Manager

Mobile-friendly sites turn visitors into customers

Tuesday, September 25, 2012 | 6:00 AM

In this world of constant connectivity, consumers expect to find the information that they want, when they want it - especially when they’re on the go. We know that this applies to their web browsing experiences on mobile, so we took a deeper look at users’ expectations and reactions towards their site experiences on mobile. Most interestingly, 61% of people said that they’d quickly move onto another site if they didn’t find what they were looking for right away on a mobile site. The bottom line: Without a mobile-friendly site you’ll be driving users to your competition. In fact, 67% of users are more likely to buy from a mobile-friendly site, so if that site’s not yours, you’ll be missing out in a big way.


Discover these and more findings from, What Users Want Most From Mobile Sites Today, a study from Google (conducted by Sterling Research and SmithGeiger, independent market research firms). The report surveyed 1,088 US adult smartphone Internet users in July 2012.  

The problem (and opportunity) is big...
While nearly 75% of users prefer a mobile-friendly site, 96% of consumers say they’ve encountered sites that were clearly not designed for mobile devices. This is both a big problem and a big opportunity for companies seeking to engage with mobile users.

Mobile-friendly sites turn users into customers
The fastest path to mobile customers is through a mobile-friendly site. If your site offers a great mobile experience, users are more likely to make a purchase.
  • When they visited a mobile-friendly site, 74% of people say they’re more likely to return to that site in the future
  • 67% of mobile users say that when they visit a mobile-friendly site, they’re more likely to buy a site’s product or service

Not having a mobile-friendly site helps your competitors  
A great mobile site experience is becoming increasingly important, and users will keep looking for a mobile-friendly site until they find one that works for them. That means your competitors will benefit if your site falls down on the job (and vice versa).
  • 61% of users said that if they didn’t find what they were looking for right away on a mobile site, they’d quickly move on to another site
  • 79% of people who don’t like what they find on one site will go back and search for another site
  • 50% of people said that even if they like a business, they will use them less often if the website isn't mobile-friendly

Non-mobile friendly sites can hurt a company’s reputation
It turns out that you can lose more than the sale with a bad mobile experience. A site that’s not designed for mobile can leave users feeling downright frustrated, and these negative reactions translate directly to the brands themselves.
  • 48% of users say they feel frustrated and annoyed when they get to a site that’s not mobile-friendly
  • 36% said they felt like they’ve wasted their time by visiting those sites
  • 52% of users said that a bad mobile experience made them less likely to engage with a company
  • 48% said that if a site didn’t work well on their smartphones, it made them feel like the company didn’t care about their business

Takeaways
While the research confirms what we already suspected -- that mobile users actively seek out and prefer to engage with mobile-friendly sites -- it’s a sobering reminder of just how quickly and deeply users attitudes about companies can be shaped by mobile site experiences. Having a great mobile site is no longer just about making a few more sales. It’s become a critical component of building strong brands, nurturing lasting customer relationships, and making mobile work for you.

To learn more about our study
  • Click here and join our free webinar on September 26 at 1 p.m. EST  / 10 a.m. PST
  • Get help on building a mobile-friendly site, visit howtogomo.com.

Posted by: Masha Fisch, Google Mobile Ads Marketing






Small screen, big creative opportunity

Friday, September 21, 2012 | 9:00 AM

Earlier this year, mobile took the stage as a category at Cannes for the very first time.  Earlier this week, we launched the Creative Sandbox Gallery, a crowdsourced collection of global campaigns that push the boundaries of creativity and technology across digital platforms.  It’s becoming clear that mobile has truly arrived as a creative platform, and we can feel a new awakening brewing within the creative agency community around the possibilities of mobile.  

When creatives embrace and believe in the power of mobile, beautiful, impactful work is produced.  We wanted to share a few of our favorite examples here, in our first ever video tour of mobile creativity.  Below we share a sampling of some creative mobile branded experiences as well as some of our favorite rich media mobile and tablet ad executions.  Be sure to check the Creative Sandbox Gallery regularly for more cutting edge mobile examples as more are submitted.

Branded Mobile Experiences
We’ve seen brands from all verticals investing in creative mobile experiences.  We recommend focusing on creative executions with broad reach, but we wanted to share a few noteworthy Augmented Reality and QR code executions as well.  Here are a few of the most creative branded mobile experiences we’ve seen:

  • Heineken: With the insight that many people watch UEFA Champions League matches at home alone from their couches while using their smartphones instead of in a social setting, Heineken introduced the mobile game StarPlayer. To score points, players predict what will happen in the next few seconds of the game.




  • Band-Aid (Cannes Lions Mobile Gold Winner 2012): What better way to take a hurt kid’s mind off their boo-boo than this augmented reality Magic Vision app featuring the Muppets?  After applying the bandage, children can use the app to interact with Muppets.



  • eMart (Cannes Lions Mobile Gold Winner 2012): This major retailer in Korea faced a challenge: sales slowed during lunchtime.  To drive in store traffic during this time of day, they installed a shadow QR code in a heavily foot trafficked area that would only be scanable when the sun was directly overhead at lunchtime.




  • Toyota (Cannes Lions Mobile Gold Winner 2012): Toyota created an extremely entertaining app that takes advantage of the fact that mobile devices are location aware.  Consumers can be a backseat driver as their real world route is pulled into this engaging mobile game:



  • Red Tomato Pizza (Cannes Lions Mobile Gold Winner 2012): In Dubai, where hundreds of languages are spoken, ordering pizza can be challenging.  With the invention of the VIP Fridge magnet (aka Pizza Emergency button) that communicates via bluetooth with your smartphone, a simple push of a button transmits your exact order for delivery.



  • Airwalk: To promote their limited edition shoes, Airwalk created an “invisible pop up store”.  For one day, if people downloaded the app and came to a specific location, they could visit an invisible virtual store made possible through augmented reality and purchase the shoes.



  • Chevy (Cannes Lions Mobile Gold Winner 2012): With the insight that consumers are increasingly engaging with their smartphones and tablets while watching TV, Chevy introduced their Game Time app, effectively hijacking the Super Bowl by adding a second screen. This app gave viewers a reason to engage with Chevy for the entire game and watch their ads closely for the chance to win prizes including a free car.



Rich Media Mobile Ads
Often, when we talk to creative agencies about mobile creativity, they immediately think about apps and augmented reality.  However, an often overlooked and under-planned area in mobile creativity is mobile ads.  Many creatives (and media buyers and brands, for that matter) are unaware of the creative possibilities of mobile ads.  Using HTML5, app-like rich media executions can be created to run at scale to an engaged mobile audience as they browse apps.  Take a look at the examples below to understand the cutting edge of mobile ad creativity, uniting the digital and physical worlds:


  • Coke (Cannes Lions Mobile Grand Prix Winner 2012): The classic “Hilltop” campaign was reimagined for the digital era through Project Re:Brief.  Through this rich media HTML5 ad execution in mobile, consumers can literally buy the world a coke via specially configured vending machines set up in cities around the globe, delivering on a brand promise Coke made to consumers more than 40 years ago.  



  • Bradesco Seguros (Cannes Lions Mobile Gold Winner 2012): Bradesco found a creative way to leverage rich media ads on tablets to promote car insurance plans to tablet users in Brazil.  A simple swiping gesture between pages of content led the car in the ad to crash, driving home the message that “Unexpected events happen without warning.  Make a Bradesco car insurance plan.”


The results?  While many of these example have not publicly released their data or simply mentioned that they had strong engagement with their audience, some of these companies included sales results in their videos above.  eMart indicated that their Shadow QR code drove sales during the lunch rush as intended and Red Tomato Pizza reported becoming so inundated with orders that they are considering expanding their operations.  Research has also demonstrated the critical role plays in brand building.  The bottom line is that mobile is a highly creative medium that works for building brands and driving sales.

We are inspired by the brands and agencies behind these industry-leading campaigns and we hope you enjoyed this quick video tour of mobile creativity.  Please visit the Creative Sandbox Gallery to view new best-in-class mobile campaigns as more are added.  If you’re a creative agency, we hope you’ll submit your work to be featured in the gallery.  We can’t wait to see what you create.

Posted by Johanna Werther, Sr. PMM Mobile Ads