Mobile Marketing

If you aren’t developing a mobile strategy, or implementing and refining one, there is a tendency to feel like the last one picked for the kickball team. With all the activity — and dollars — surrounding the mobile space, it’s easy to see why the primary goal for many marketers has been to just get in the game.

Sephora is enhancing the shopping experience and broadening its mobile reach with a new Google Catalogs application for tablet devices. Google Catalogs is a free app that lets users browse catalogs from Macy’s, Brooks Brothers, Pottery Barn and others via the iPad. Users can also interact with videos and additional content for a rich user experience.

Do you ever feel like you don’t know how to effectively leverage your mobile marketing campaigns? While mobile is an incredible new way to distribute content and reach customers, it also presents a unique challenge when it comes to measuring the impact of our mobile effort, like applications, advertisements or mobile friendly websites.

Toys"R"Us will run a new pilot program this fall that rewards consumers just by stepping into its stores. The company is working with shopkick on the mobile initiative. The pilot program will bring shopkick’s walk-in rewards and special deals to 100 select locations.

British retailers will be giving over more of their marketing budgets to mobile this year and luxury retailer Harrods is no exception. In a bid to give the brand a greater global presence, Harrods.com will be launched along with a fully transactional mobile website. Many of the store's rivals, including John Lewis and Debenhams, already have transactional mobile websites and apps.

After a successful launch this past spring, Macy's is bringing back its customized mobile barcode program, Backstage Pass. In addition to sending new promotional videos to shoppers' phones when they scan the QR codes, customers will also have the chance to win daily shopping sprees.

comScore released results of a study on mobile QR and barcode scanning based on data from its comScore MobiLens service. The study found that in June, 14 million mobile users in the U.S., representing 6.2 percent of the total mobile audience, scanned a QR or barcode on their mobile device.

HSN is letting fashion-savvy consumers shop Queen Latifah’s new line by scanning a QR code featured in its static magazine ad. Consumers can download a QR code reader to shop the collection. The Queen Latifah collection is available exclusively on HSN on Aug. 27.

Finish Line said it's released an e-commerce enabled app for Apple and Android mobile devices that provides geo-targeted store location and real-time inventory functions. Based on the location of the user, the free app provides detailed store location information including address, phone number and driving directions.

Swedish furniture retailer Ikea is driving consumers to download its new catalog app via an iAd campaign that leads users straight to Apple’s App Store. Ikea has been using mobile advertising for a while to engage consumers and drive sales.