August 2, 2012
Jewelry retailer Pandora has been steadily making mobile a bigger part of its marketing strategy to not only drive sales, but increase brand awareness.
The company has used mobile during key holiday seasons such as Mother?s Day and big events including the Superbowl to engage new and existing customers with its products. Additionally, Pandora has a mobile application and has dipped its toes in mobile advertising, as well as QR codes.
?We?re evaluating all sorts of different vehicles constantly,? said Angel Ilagan, vice president of marketing at Pandora North America.
?Mobile works, especially well when we talk about our major holiday campaigns,? he said. ?As we understand how the consumer utilizes a mobile device, we?re able to apply our advertising accordingly to make it fit to the environment.
?There?s also a lot more engagement happening on mobile.?
Mobile campaigns
Earlier this year, Pandora ran a mobile Valentine?s Day campaign that aimed to engage male gift givers.
The company partnered with Millennial Media and agency GKV on the mobile initiative, which targeted males during Super Bowl Sunday.
The campaign drove more than 17-times the number of clicks as the average for the previous 16 days.
Via the campaign, Pandora ran mobile ads on mobile sites and apps that would likely reach men while they were browsing between plays.
The campaign ran every Sunday in January leading up to the big game.
Instead of going the traditional route and spending a lot each month on a 30-second spot, Pandora decided that mobile was the next big step in reaching its target demographic.
Additionally, the jewelry retailer ran another campaign with Millennial and GKV for Mother?s Day.
The mobile campaign ran three weeks prior to the holiday and targeted both men and women.
The demographic for the Mother?s Day campaign was men ages 35-49 and women ages 25-49 with an annual household income of more than $50,000.
Through the mobile ads, consumers were encouraged to design their own bracelets.?
Inevitably, the intiative aimed to bolster Pandora?s sales during Mother?s Day.
According to Mr. Ilagan, the campaign delivered upon the company?s expectations and drove consumers to the Pandora Gift Advisor.
In addition to using mobile advertising, Pandora also has a mobile app where consumers can browse the entire Pandora catalog, stay up-to-day on the latest pieces in the collections, as well as share their favorite items with friends and family through Facebook and email.
Through the app, customers can also narrow down their search. For example, users can browse for items based on their budget, the type of jewelry they are looking for, the material it is made out of and the colors they prefer.
Pandora has also placed QR codes on its static print campaigns to drive brand awareness.
?QR codes help our consumers and our retailers,? Mr. Ilagan said.
Multichannel aspects
Having a multichannel approach is critical for both marketers and retailers.
Having a mobile application does not mean a marketers has a complete mobile strategy.
It is important for companies to incorporate different mobile mediums to reach as many consumers as possible.
?Pandora is a great example of a stellar jewelry brand that knows their buying season, audience and consumer behavior," said Marcus Startzel, general manager at?Millennial Media, Baltimore, MD.
"Back in January, when they advertised during the Super Bowl on mobile, they knew they would get to their targeted male audience while these avid sports fans were buried in their mobile device, versus the TV," he said.??
?GKV was a great agency partner in all of our Pandora mobile ad campaigns."
Final Take
Rimma Kats is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York
