Target Marketing, the Mobile Way

I am sure there will be a time in the not-so-distant future that smartphones will not be regarded as novel devices, and instead as commonplace. For many people, they already are. I was lucky enough to have my first smartphone, a BlackBerry a few years ago; it changed my life, all for the better. I now am an iPhone owner, and it too, improved my life.

With the evolution of the smartphone and the conveniences that it offers users, mobile marketing has become more relevant. In the United States alone, 55 million people own a smartphone. Gartner predicts that there will be 5.8 billion mobile subscribers around the world by 2013. The global implications of this are profound, and the opportunities for marketers to reach users on their mobile devices are interesting and compelling.

It is rare that I look to a B2C example for this blog to demonstrate anything that could apply for B2B. I am a bit “old school” in my beliefs of how different B2B and B2C are. But a recent case study of how Vicks will be selling thermometers to mothers caught my attention. This is not a straightforward campaign, so pay attention to the next few paragraphs.

From 2003 through 2008, Google collected billions of flu-related Web searches. Because the Web searchers’ Internet addresses indicated their locations, Google designed a formula to estimate regional flu activity based solely on searches, with a reporting lag of only 24 hours. It surpassed the CDC’s ability to forecast flu outbreaks, which are typically published a week or two after the outbreak occurs.

In 2009, Google and the CDC co-authored an article for the journal Nature about the new predictive model, which is now called Google Flu Trends. Google Flu Trends has now become the cornerstone for an advertising campaign for the Vicks Behind the Ear Thermometer. This is a new product at Vicks, and marketers wanted to reach mothers, the primary purchasers of thermometers.

A mobile campaign by Blue Chip Marketing places the ads (see ad sample) for the thermometers within popular mobile applications like Pandora that collect basic details from users, such as their gender and whether they are parents, and can pinpoint specific demographics to receive ads. The ads will be sent to devices that, according to Google Flu Trends, are in regions experiencing a high incidence of flu, and also to mothers within two miles of retailers that carry the thermometers.

By tapping the ad, users will view a product page with an informational video and a list of nearby retailers. Then tapping on the retailer list will provide driving directions to the closest store. 

I find this campaign to be brilliant in its ability to be so targeted to its market, and also how easy it has made the recipient to make a product purchase. I have my fingers crossed to see my own Vicks Behind the Ear thermometer in Pandora sometime this winter.