Why Mobile for Pre-Christmas?

As the holiday season quickly approaches, marketers need to start their campaign planning. This year may be different than any other in terms of the role that mobile will play. Marketers have quickly come to embrace mobile and all that it offers in terms of a one-to-one communication vehicle. There is no doubt that we will start seeing a shift in how major brands and retailers market for the holidays. In addition, most major brands and retailers have decreased their advertising budgets, and managers will be looking for a more cost-effective and trackable solution in order to justify each dollar spent,” she said.

“In this regard, mobile is the most powerful marketing tool for these brands – it will allow them to place information directly into the hands of consumers, and quickly drive an increase in foot traffic at the point of sale.”

Advertisers have already begun their holiday marketing planning. As with other times of the year and all other campaigns, the key is to know one’s audience. Consumers are increasingly mobile, or on the go, and therefore the best way to reach out to them is on the device that they never leave home without – the mobile phone.

With the economic problems, marketers are looking for ways to save a buck or two, and because mobile is still a fairly new marketing medium the prices are still pretty low. The volume of holiday marketing campaigns makes mobile very attractive to marketers looking to break through the clutter. Marketers that leverage the channel will have a great vehicle to get through to and reach their target audience.

Last year, department store chain JC Pennry launched an integrated marketing campaign and mobile just happened to be one of the components. The campaign highlighted JCPenney's affordable gift assortment and invited customers to celebrate in the joy of giving during the holiday season.

But a new idea Mr. Everett is hearing about is tied into retailers overriding objective to get the customers into their stores first, before they've spent most of their holiday gift budgets. That is why the big chains have Thanksgiving newspaper inserts touting their "DOORBUSTER" promotions saying "doors will open at 5am or 6am" on Black Friday. Sometimes they open as early as midnight on Thursday.

“What we're hearing is that some marketers are considering a second chance promotion where they could now use SMS to inform their database of shoppers that they have a midday price break, say between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., and note some of the bargains on offer,” Mr. Everett said.

“The idea is essentially a mid-day, real-time shout-out to their customer database to get them to abandon their current shopping destination and head over to the SMS store's side of the mall,” he said. “So if they can't get them in the morning, they can still try for half a loaf in the afternoon." From Mobile Marketer at http://bit.ly/6d2tC

For information contact Andrew damico@zipstripe.com