Top 3 Viral Mobile Marketing Campaign Examples to Inspire You

Last Updated: December 16, 2021

With so many consumers primarily using mobile devices, you can’t ignore the power of intelligently placed mobile marketing campaigns. In this article, we look at three viral marketing campaign examples and what they imply for marketers. Scroll down to read how: 

  • Behr Paint provided highly personalized recommendations via AI
  • Domino’s offered rewards for rival brands, enabled by image recognition 
  • Miller Lite leveraged Blockchain to reward their customer’s product knowledge
     

2019 is a landmark year for marketers looking to leverage mobile marketing optimally. For the first time, consumers are more invested in mobile content compared to television. Mobile content consumption is at a steady riseOpens a new window , increasing from 3 hours 25 minutes in 2017 to 3 hours 43 minutes in 2019, and is projected to reach nearly 4 hours a day by 2021 in the U.S. 

That’s why brands are eager to create smart mobile marketing campaigns that tap into this fast-growing audience. Domino’s chose mobile over the traditional TV ad for its Super Bowl campaign in 2019. Here is a look at some brands that showcased the power of mobile marketing campaigns in 2019, going beyond simple promotions and giveaways. 

Learn More: Top 8 Mobile Advertising Platforms for 2019Opens a new window

Viral Mobile Marketing Campaign Examples and What You Can Learn From Them 
 

Virtually every device, from television to computers and tablets, are losing out audience share to mobile. This makes mobile marketing campaigns a necessity for brands. Combining mobile apps with technologies such as AI, Blockchain, and augmented realityOpens a new window , can help you engage with a broader audience and on an emotional level. Here are inspirations from three leading brands this year. 

1. IBM Watson Ads campaign with Behr Paint – How mobile chatbots can create interactive experiences;
 

Watson Ads and Behr Paint’s AI Assistant

When Behr wanted to give its customers an interactive and informative product experience, it teamed up with IBM for its AI-based advertising capabilities. The result was a unique mobile website that could help customers with a room’s color selection. Interestingly, the methodology wasn’t just based on color combinations or interior design best practices – the Watson-based bot asked customers how they felt about the room, the reasons for renovating, and their sentimental connote to provide a highly personalized recommendation. 

The mobile marketing campaign was powered by Watson Assistant (an AI bot), natural language processing, and IBM’s Tone Analyzer. IBM won the Best Mobile Online AdOpens a new window at the 2019 Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) Awards for this partnership with Behr. 

Users have a relationship with their mobile devices and are almost always engaged on them. That’s why you can use chatbots to establish a connection here, stronger than ever possible on a website or display ads. The data collected via quick conversations with bots can be used to tailor a plethora of marketing messages, from product recommendations to customized alerts. 

2. Piece of the Pie Rewards by Domino’s – How targeted messaging can broaden your audience 
 

Domino’s Campaign to Reward Customers for Eating Any Pizza

Super Bowl Weekend is a busy time for brands in the US. However, Domino’s had one critical challenge – its primary competitor, Pizza Hut, was the official pizza sponsor for the NFL. As a result, Pizza Hut was likely to gain far more attention. To grab some of the focus toward its product portfolio, Domino’s launched a rewards program, which would incentivize pizza purchases for any brand, even competitorsOpens a new window

The customer could download the Domino’s app and scan pizza images to earn rewards. After collecting sixty points, the customer would win a free product from Domino’s. Interestingly, the pizza could belong to any brand – in a bid to collect user-generated content and create a buzz during the Super Bowl games. The app used AI technology for image recognition and was inspired by the “hackvertising” trend that directly targets competitors via innovative strategies. 

When designing your mobile marketing campaign, it could be a good idea to widen your reach as much as possible. Look beyond your products and services, and seek inspiration from your target customers’ experiential ecosystem. A little competition never hurt anyone, right?!

3. Trivia for Rewards by Miller Lite – How Blockchain can transform rewards distribution 
 

The beer industry has recently come under scrutiny regarding the quality of its ingredients. As a new generation of millennial customers enters the marketplace, Miller Lite decided to raise awareness and establish its brand’s credibility for responsible ingredient sourcing with Great Taste Trivia, a mobile marketing campaign in the form of trivia, as part of its “Know Your Beer” initiativeOpens a new window . Customers could enter their email address and age confirmation to start the trivia game. They were asked 12 questions, and upon answering each correctly, could receive a $5 reward via PayPal. 

The Blockchain-enabled edutainment game could authenticate and reward players immediately. This is a great example of how emerging tech like Blockchain (which has traditionally been viewed as a mere backend integration) can directly transform customer experiences. 

You can combine Blockchain with mobile apps to change how your customer interacts with the brand. Product reviews, recommendations, and social media sharing could all become incentivized activities. 

Learn More: Mobile Games Are Facing Regulation. Here’s How to Protect Your RevenueOpens a new window

Key Takeaways for Marketers 

The sky’s the limit when it comes to conceptualizing a mobile marketing campaign. Marketers can now accurately understand customer sentiment, push their brands via fresh channels, and evoke new ways of customer interactions. That’s why it’s important for you to: 

  • Make every mobile marketing campaign more interactive, with the power of AI, augmented reality, and other such technologies 
  • Conduct expansive market research to understand the pulse of the customer, and how they approach your brand as well as your competitors
  • Continually update your tech capabilities, gaining from the latest innovations
  • Push for new, out-of-the-box strategies for brand recall – informed by evolving customer demands and expectations 
     

There you have it. That was our round-up of the best mobile marketing campaigns we’ve seen this year. By intelligently combining the right tools, while consistently maintaining brand voice, these companies were able to drive engagement – and stand out in an incredibly crowded marketplace. 

Learn More

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Do you think we’ve missed out on an exceptional mobile marketing campaign? Tell us about your experience on LinkedInOpens a new window , FacebookOpens a new window , or TwitterOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you!

Chiradeep BasuMallick
Chiradeep BasuMallick

Contributor, Ziff Davis B2B

Chiradeep is a content marketing professional with 8 Years+ experience in corporate communications, marketing content, brand management, and advertising. Over the course of his tenure, he’s worked on several big-ticket projects, led and trained a variety of teams, and been instrumental in driving delivery quality, timeline adherence, and talent harvesting.
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