While many of us feel like we’re only mid way through the summer, the Back-to-School advertising hype has begun. How many emails have you received so far about Back-to-School sales? As the Back-to-School marketing campaigns begin to take off, Mobile Marketer, a great news blog about mobile media, marketing and commerce, reports an increase in mobile advertising during this shopping season.
In this light, JCPenny today announced their “New Look. New Year. Who Knew!” Back-to-School Campaign, which they developed with agencies Saatchi and Saatchi New York and Razorfish to target the teen market. You can read about the many aspects of their new campaign in today’s press release, but I’ll give you a snip of their mobile advertising component:
Along with its iPhone app and mobile coupons, JCPenney continues to be a leader in the mobile space, bringing its signature style and affordable prices directly to teens’ fingertips with a special Back-to-School WAP site (jcpteen.mobi). This mobile hub includes JCPenney’s Back-to-School TV spot and “hauls”; an opportunity to opt-in and receive weekly texts on the latest Back-to-School looks; view Back-to-School styles and even upload their own look, which can be voted on and shared with friends. JCPenney will also be one of a select group of companies to begin marketing to consumers through Apple’s new iAd concept with the launch of an interactive Back-to-School ad that will appear when iPhone and iPod Touch customers use an app on their device.
JCPenny’s use of phones to target the teen market reinforces our recent post about Mindshare’s use of phones for teen market research on Juicy Fruit. The strong connection between teens and phones is only continuing to grow, and companies that want to target this specific market are creating their advertising campaigns according.
Why is mobile advertising so successful with teens? Beyond the fact that teens have become glued to their cell phones, I think that success of mobile advertising also stems from its ability captivate the teen population through interactive social networks, in the same sense as facebook and twitter. If you look at JCPenny’s mobile advertising campaign, or browse through their mobile website, you’ll see that almost each page asks the teens to participate in activities, such as watching YouTube videos, uploading photos or voting on their favorite looks. In addition to drawing in the teens through interactive activities, this advertising effort could really take off through word-of-mouth. Just imagine, that after uploading a photo of one’s favorite look, the teen then texts 5 friends to check out the new pic and vote on it. In effect, the target population of teens can act as JCPenny’s greatest advertising agency, if this campaign really kicks off.
My question for you is this: how sensitive do you think that this market will be to the fact that the activities are really meant as advertisements? Do you believe, in general, that customers who participate in mobile activities alter their behavior based on whether or not an app is created as a marketing campaign?
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- How Mobile Payments Can Increase Loyalty
- Honor Earth Day with a Mobile Marketing Campaign
- Target Goes Mobile with Smartphone Coupons
- Best Buy’s Misleading Computer Advertising (Updated)
