Thanksgiving weekend set records for mobile sales and traffic, accounting for nearly 40% of online traffic on Black Friday and nearly a third of all online traffic on Cyber Monday, according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark. Three years ago, mobile accounted for just 4% of Cyber Monday online traffic.
"This is really the year that mobile has tipped for consumers," says Alexis Rask, chief revenue officer for mobile shopping app start-up Shopkick, which gives users points for walking into partner retailers that can then be redeemed for gift cards and other prizes.
Retailers are responding by pushing holiday-themed apps, social-media hashtags, and Pinterest boards that encourage participation and purchases.
Target created its entire holiday campaign around a hashtag. Over the summer, the company noticed that people were using #MyKindofHoliday on Twitter to share family traditions and photos over the Fourth of July and other occasions. Target built its holiday season campaign from that same hashtag, encouraging followers to share photos of their favorite holiday moments on Instagram and Twitter, creating social media-inspired TV spots such as a commercial that brings a woman's holiday Pinterest board to life with Target merchandise, and a holiday-specific gaming app.
"This is the most digitally enabled campaign in Target's history," says Jeff Jones, chief marketing officer.
The app has users play a game that involves building a virtual Christmas tree. Through Dec. 14, app users are entered to win gift cards every time they complete certain actions, such as adding ornaments to the tree or inviting friends to participate. Target will give away 40 $25 gift cards a day and a $500 grand prize.
Jones says social media provides the "sweet spot" for any marketing campaign: "Drive traffic to the site or store, deepen engagement, and strengthen their love for our brand."
On social ! media, sometimes interaction and conversation can be just as powerful to customers as offering them a discount. That's because human beings love to participate, given the right environment, says Daina Middleton, global CEO of marketing agency Performics and author of Marketing in the Participation Age: A Guide to Motivating People to Join, Share, Take Park, Connect, and Engage.
"It's no longer enough to just send customers a message," she says. "It's really important to involve them in the process."
Ultimately, by constantly giving shoppers a way to interact on mobile apps and social media, retailers will grow their business, she says.
"That's a really cool part of mobile," Rask says. "You can be sort of pleasantly interruptive in a nice way that might change behavior or inspire something unplanned."
Brands all give the same answer as to why mobile and social strategies have taken over this the holiday season: phones, tablets and social media are where and how customers spend their time. The numbers back them up. Smartphone ownership has grown to 61%, up from 42% in 2011, according to Deloitte, a national consulting firm.
About 128 million people access Facebook every day in the U.S., and more than 100 million of them are doing so on their phones or tablets, says Nicolas Franchet, Facebook's head of retail and e-commerce. Facebook accounts for 23% of time spent on apps, according to ComScore data.
"The reality is people are on mobile all the time, and that's where retailers and brands need to connect with them much more than in the past," Franchet says.
Walmart is pushing Facebook mobile advertising for the first time this holiday season to drive downloads of the Walmart app, says spokesman Ravi Jariwala. The strategy seems to be working. Online traffic growth from the Walmart app more than doubled from last year over the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, Jariwala says.
"The news feed is really now the digital aisle where users get to dis! cover pro! ducts," Franchet says.
American Express' syncing technology, which launched two years ago, is seeing its highest engagement yet this holiday season. The technology allows cardholders to sync their cards to social-media platforms, including Twitter, Foursquare and Facebook. Then they can get discounts with participating brands by using certain hashtags, checking into a location, or liking a post. For example, tweeting #AmexZappos enrolls users in a deal for $30 off a purchase of $150 or more at Zappos when they use their American Express cards at checkout. The $30 is credited to their account after the purchase is made.
An offer for a $25 credit on a $75 purchase at Amazon ahead of Cyber Monday became the most popular deal ever through the American Express sync program — it was redeemed by hundreds of thousands of users within two days, says Leslie Berland, senior vice president of digital partnerships and development at American Express. The hashtag #AmexAmazon was tweeted about 65,000 times in 12 hours.
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So far, social media and mobile campaigns seem to be helping.
"The ultimate goal of marketing is to drive our business, and we have been off to a very good start, based on the Thanksgiving holiday (weekend)," says Jones of Target. "I think that's what we're feeling most excited about."
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