Ran out of inspiration for your mobile marketing campaign?
Don’t worry, I have the solution.
In this article, you will find innovative mobile marketing campaigns and trends that might just get your creative juices flowing!
Hottest Mobile Marketing Campaign Trends
First off, in order to see why certain mobile marketing campaigns are cool and innovative, we need to check out the latest trends.
1. Gamification
You’ve probably heard of the term “gamification” being thrown around on the internet.
But what exactly does it mean?
Incorporating game-inspired design and mechanics into non-gaming environments is known as gamification.
In other words, a lot of people love to play games, so marketing teams decided to incorporate the fun gaming elements into everything else – social media, e-mail advertising, contests, and more.
Some of those gaming techniques used in non-gaming environments are competitions, ranking lists, scoring systems, and incentives.
Perks of utilizing gamification in advertising are:
- Increasing user engagement and motivation
- Attracting new users
- Building brand loyalty
- Making the promotional offers more interesting
- User education
Furthermore, it allows users who grew up in the digital age, i.e., Millennials and Gen Z, to experience an ad tailored to them. This experience consists of highly engaging and interactive pieces of visual content.
The proof of gamification’s success is definitely in the numbers. The gamification markets worldwide have been rapidly growing, expecting to reach a worth of $30.7 billion in 2025
However, the best way to explain gamification is by showing you an example.
Pizza Hut is a company with a great example of gamification on social media.
The company shared a photo on Instagram of a simple game in which users had to connect pizza-related words.
The key here was to keep the game simple, increase engagement, and entice users to return to your social media page.
Moreover, Pizza Hut’s PAC MAN campaign also featured gamification, which I’ll go into greater detail about later in the article.
2. Augmented Reality
The term “augmented reality” refers to a technology that overlays digital data on top of the real world. This comprises audio, visuals, and text. The main idea behind augmented reality is to display virtual features in the real world with a smart device.
AR has been a massive trend for a while now. Anyone with a smartphone can get a taste of the future we can usually see only in movies.
But, what is AR even good for?
Among many possible uses for augmented reality, product visualization is the most common.
Furthermore, AR has brought a sustained value as a shopping tool in various eCommerce scenarios. Shopify, for example, reported that products that offered 3D and AR visualizations achieved 94% greater conversions on average than the non-AR equivalents.
According to Thomas Alopp’s research on Statista, the overall mobile AR profit in 2021 is $9.5 billion. Furthermore, Alopp has estimated that there were approximately 810 million active mobile AR users in 2021.
The majority of the 810 million AR users were on Snapchat, where they used the Snap Lenses. In addition, 233 million people were using Facebook AR.
Along with this information, ARtillery Intelligence reports that AR will influence $36 billion in consumer spending by 2024.
All in all, AR for mobile presents many opportunities to optimize mobile marketing and improve retention and engagement. Of course, if users have something to interact with, they are more likely to stay.
3. Metaverse
The term “metaverse“ is relatively recent, and you’ve probably heard it a lot lately. The term has become so big that a giant like Facebook ditched its company name and changed it to Meta.
Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, stated that his company was dedicated to creating a metaverse. According to Zuckerberg, metaverse will become the next-generation internet that people will be able to experience through Meta products in the future years.
Shortly after, Microsoft announced that they would also be committing their work to build a metaverse.
However, one question is still unanswered – what is metaverse?
Metaverse’s definition is not exactly one-dimensional. A simplified explanation is that it combines virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and the web. Imagine it like an online virtual world.
Zuckerberg demonstrated his company’s metaverse concept, which customers will be able to experience with VR technology.
Moreover, he showed how the metaverse functions by including a video call from his “real-life friends”. This entire experience was possible due to VR technology.
However, the metaverse enters the scene as soon as he gets a call from his friends. His friends offer him to scan a wall mural, and the metaverse shifts to the AR inside the VR experience.
Now that we have a better understanding of what metaverse is, let’s look at how it can help with marketing and advertising.
First and foremost, the participation of major businesses like Meta and Microsoft in this trend has already opened the door to many future advertising opportunities.
There’s no doubt that as the metaverse’s popularity keeps growing on Meta, many different advertising opportunities will start arising. There are virtually no limits to what kind of advertising ideas you can come up with.
Let’s see an example from Stella Artois, who developed a metaverse ad with Zed Run. The two companies created a 3D horse track race where players could place bids on horses, the same as during the real-life horse races.
Stella Artois often sponsors horse races. That’s why they’ve joined forces with Zed Run and created an online platform where users can trade NFTs of horses, breed them, participate in races, and more.
Best Mobile Marketing Campaigns
After learning about the newest trends, it’s time to take a look at the best mobile marketing campaigns that managed to utilize trends in fun and innovative ways.
1. Rita Ora x EE 5G AR Campaign
Rita Ora, a famous British pop singer, collaborated with EE, a mobile network provider from the UK.
This collaboration was an immersive experience featuring the power of Web-based augmented reality (WebAR). The WebAR part of the campaign was developed and deployed by Aircards.
This campaign took place during November and a part of December 2020. Rita Ora collaborated with EE to create 3D animations of her dancing, which Aircards then used to create a user-friendly WebAR experience.
Aircards also added a screen recording feature, allowing users to record and share their dancing AR Rita with friends and family.
The campaign aimed to promote both EE’s 5G technology, which was recently launched in the UK, and Rita’s concerts.
Did EE and Rita Ora Succeed in Connecting with Users?
Aircards stated that they had collaborated closely with the EE teams to deliver a broad online distribution strategy.
This strategy included paid social advertising on EE’s social media platforms. In addition to paid advertising, the AR campaign could be activated via Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Rita Ora also shared the campaign on her Instagram stories, visible to her 16 million followers.
Aircards declared the Rita Ora x EE campaign a success. According to them, most traffic came from Rita Ora’s Instagram promotion.
The EE team expressed satisfaction with the multi-channel strategy’s scalability and success.
The campaign yielded:
- More than 85,000 AR activations
- Users spent about three minutes and 20 seconds on average within the AR experience
- 13.2% CTR
Since this AR campaign wasn’t meant to be experienced just once, Aircards reported that the users had spent that average time to replay the experience two to three times.
Furthermore, EE included the CTA “Discover the Power of 5G” with a button that led to their website.
According to Aircards, such a high CTR showed that a large number of users clicked through to the EE landing page to get informed about the 5G mobile network.
However, the campaign didn’t last as long as the companies wanted. Rita Ora, the face of the campaign, was caught breaching lockdown rules in the UK. This caused a huge backlash, so EE decided to back out of the deal in December 2020 due to the negative attention.
2. Ed Sheeran x Pokémon Go
The Pokémon Go creators, Niantic, decided to team up with an unexpected partner – singer Ed Sheeran.
According to Niantic’s blog post, Ed Sheeran is apparently a fan of the Pokémon franchise. His favorite Pokémons, as Niantic revealed, are water ones. This was really convenient for Niantic since they got to launch a special Squirtle with sunglasses from the Pokémon show, along with another water starter Pokémon.
Ed Sheeran’s performance in Pokémon Go featured songs from his newest album = (Equals), as well as others, such as Perfect, Bad Habits, Overpass Graffiti, Thinking Out Loud, and more. The campaign started on November 22nd, 2021, and ended on November 30th, 2021.
A special in-game performance by Ed Sheeran was available to Pokémon Go players. During these Ed Sheeran performances, players could acquire special virtual merch for their avatars with the album logo.
The goal of this AR campaign is to boost Ed Sheeran’s album sales, as well as promote new Pokémon Go updates.
Can Ed Sheeran Catch Them All in the Pokémon Go Mobile Marketing Campaign?
Now, there was a Reddit thread discussing why did Niantic opt for Ed Sheeran. The fanbase seemed to be split on this case. Some love the idea, some hate it, but most of them are wondering how Niantic and Ed Sheeran’s collaboration came to be.
But, even if people didn’t care about Ed Sheeran’s music, they could still enjoy the event and catch some water Pokémon.
However, it’s clear that the idea of in-game concerts works great. Just look at the example Fortnite set with its concerts featuring famous singers, such as Ariana Grande, Travis Scott, and Marshmello. Moreover, Roblox also hosted a Lil Nas X concert.
So let’s put things into perspective. During the last Fortnite concert, Astroworld by Travis Scott, more than 27.7 million unique players attended the three-day concert event.
Furthermore, players participated more than 45.8 million times during the five showtimes. On the first day, Fortnite even broke its record for the most players in one day, 12.3 million.
As a result, even if the exact numbers of the Pokémon Go campaign are unknown for now, it is safe to assume that it was a success for both Niantic and Ed Sheeran. According to Billboard, Sheeran’s promoted album debuted at number one in November, smashing the sales.
3. Roblox & Gucci Garden
Now, if you thought that Ed Sheeran and Pokémon were a surprising match, I present to you – Roblox x Gucci metaverse experience.
The campaign began on Gucci’s 100th anniversary and lasted for two weeks. Gucci and Roblox have created sets of virtual spaces with brand-new digital branded Gucci items. The Gucci Garden takes advantage of recent advances in the game engine that powers Roblox.
The users were able to walk through the garden featuring blank mannequins that shift as users move through different rooms. Gucci stated that the rooms represented their campaigns through the years.
This campaign is a metaverse, not only because of the virtual Roblox world but also because the digital event also exists in the form of a real-world multimedia event in Florence.
How Many Robux Is One Gucci Bag Worth?
More than 42 million Roblox players participated in the Gucci Garden event, which allowed them to purchase limited-edition Gucci collectibles and accessories. The prices for these items ranged from $1.20 to $9.
Some items were given away for free, but the exclusivity label was on everything. All of these items were hidden in a virtual garden and had to be discovered.
This was a one-of-a-kind experience for players because Roblox’s core demographic is relatively young, and most of them cannot afford luxury items in the real world.
According to Roblox’s developer, players “won” over 4.5 million items, including both paid and free items.
Now, once the event is over, the value of these items will continue to rise, just like the value of real-life luxury fashion collectibles.
Interestingly, the Gucci Dionysus Bag with Bee was resold on Roblox’s marketplace for more than $4,100 worth of Roblox’s currency, Robux.
This is a fun fact because the bag’s retail price in the real world equals $3,400.
Gucci’s Chief Marketing Officer, Robert Triefus, stated how Gucci had been redefining its approachability and started to extend its reach to digital platforms such as Roblox.
He noted that the scale came quickly, and that, which takes Gucci a hundred years to scale, it took Roblox about a hundred days.
Moreover, he stated that Gucci had been creating their metaverse for the last six years. Additionally, he said that the company would want to try out the blockchain and NFTs in the future.
4. Swiggy’s Facebook AR and Gamification Mobile Marketing Campaign
Swiggy, an Indian delivery app, created its mobile marketing campaign using Facebook’s AR ad technology. Their ad invited people to play a game that matched the best restaurant food with their home-cooked meals.
The goal of this campaign was to boost orders and use the lockdown situation to persuade people to order food online more frequently.
So, how did the campaign look like?
The ad is created as an AR game by the Facebook AR teams. In this game, participants could choose a dish from a menu of meals commonly prepared in Indian homes.
Following the meal selection, people could use their smartphones’ cameras to scan their surroundings and choose another dish to accompany their meal. That dish would appear as an illustration in the AR game.
Following the selection and scanning process, users would receive a discount code for the second dish within the AR ad. The only way to redeem the code was to download the Swiggy app, which was available as part of the AR experience.
Swiggy’s Success
Swiggy’s campaign was aimed at people between the ages of 18 to 34 living in various Indian cities. According to Facebook’s AR team, the campaign reached 16.8 million people.
Moreover, the campaign had a 3.3-point increase in ad recall.
Ad recall is a campaign metric that measures how memorable an ad has been to the audience. Facebook usually measures ad recall by running a survey.
This survey is usually shown to the campaign’s target audience and people who liked the company’s page on Facebook.
Moreover, the Facebook AR team stated that they had used multiple types of ads for this campaign. These ads include the AR ads, of course, along with link ads for the Swiggy app and video ads.
5. Pizza Hut’s AR Pizza Boxes
As I’ve already mentioned in the gamification part of this article, Pizza Hut came up with an innovative PAC-MAN campaign. The popular pizza restaurant chain here didn’t only utilize the gamification trend, but they also played the nostalgia card.
Moreover, these AR pizza boxes are a part of an even bigger campaign by Pizza Hut, called Newstalgia, which launched on March 15th, 2021.
The pandemic has driven an increase in at-home dining. For many customers, it has also brought up nostalgia for some simpler times.
The campaign’s goal was based on exactly that – sell as many large pizzas and increase the sales during the pandemic.
Here is how the campaign worked.
People would order a large pizza from Pizza Hut, scan the QR code on their limited-edition box, and play an AR PAC-MAN game. After that, the fans who played the AR PAC-MAN game could enter the sweepstakes for a chance to win a custom Arcade1Up PAC-MAN game cabinet.
But, in order to enter the sweepstakes, players had to share their score with Pizza Hut on Twitter using hashtags #PizzaHutARcade #Sweepstakes. Additionally, it didn’t matter how good the players were – everyone had a chance to win by simply participating.
The company explains that they chose PAC-MAN by Bandai Namco because his design was inspired by the shape of a pizza with a slice taken out of it.
Pizza Hut’s AR Mobile Marketing Campaign – It’s All about the Delivery
Pizza Hut’s AR campaign went with the standard trope – combine the old and the new. It turned the classic arcade game into an AR experience via a QR code-enabled pizza box.
The brand actively promoted the campaign on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram. On Instagram, Pizza Hut partnered with a food influencer to promote the campaign.
To Sum up Mobile Marketing Campaigns
It would be a lie to say that developing a good mobile marketing campaign, strategies, staying current with trends, and remaining unique and innovative are all simple tasks.
On the other hand, these examples may simply inspire you to experiment with new technologies and trends.
If you want to check out more trends, read our mobile marketing trends article!
Comments