Companies from Bloomingdale’s to Lowe’s are going in odd directions to try to grab the attention of younger shoppers.
Being able to attract the attention of shoppers in the Millennial generation and then actually engage them can be exceptionally challenging, forcing retailers to use mobile marketing in some rather strange ways in order to stand out.
These companies are discovering that smartphone ads aren’t necessarily about a message or a look.
Instead, mobile marketing success is all about relevance. Retailers have tried virtually everything in order to share a popular message or create an amazing look in their mobile ads. However, it’s not until they truly answer the question “what’s in it for me, personally?” that they appeal to the younger shopping generation. Shoppers need a solid reason to pay attention to a message and then to interact with it. Often, the most effective way to do this is through positivity and even humor.
All too frequently, mobile marketing comes across as something forced and constructed deliberately for popularity.
When an advertising effort is too transparent as an effort to become something viral, the outcome feels awkward to the viewer and becomes ineffective. However, occasionally, it all comes together and the result can be highly effective. That is the moment that retailers would do just about anything to achieve; to be able to reach those young shoppers and successfully encourage them to act on the call to action.
Two retailers who have been using mobile advertising to reach out to the Millennial generation include Bloomingdales and Lowe’s. The way in which they have been engaging their target markets are extremely unique and very different from each other, while being highly effective.
Lowe’s is seeking to become the top resource for first-time home and apartment owners and came up with a campaign featuring some typical types of commercials, but what made it stand out is that each commercial was recorded in the same way while coming to a different ending. To complete the story, viewers must check it out at Lowes.com. Bloomingdales, on the other hand has fashion in mind and has come up with the Bloomoticon series of 64 emoticon-like images as their mobile marketing. Shoppers can then use those tiny images in order to send out social messages.
This is something that print simply cannot achieve. Social is particularly effective in that effort, especially over platforms such as Facebook and Twitter as companies seek to boost engagement with their target market through the new social brand building and lead generation tools that are now easily accessible to businesses of all size.