A Picture’s Worth 1,000 Words of Mobile Content
Using Snap technology, readers are now being invited to use their mobile phone to take pictures of any page in a magazine that has a snap-enabled icon. After sending the pictures to a designated address, readers can watch videos, get health tips, receive coupons or get a free sample. This allows advertisers to engage with the reader in a new, direct way and brings them a better measurement of their investment.
Snap Captures Attention, Encourages Sales
Several titles and advertisers have tested mobile programs with varying levels of success. Since 2008, more than 15 different titles, from Woman’s Day to Rolling Stone, have published snap-enabled issues. Advertisers such as: Kraft, Pledge, American Express, Gillette and Dove, have all offered compelling reasons for consumers to “snap” their ad pages as a way to learn more and engage with their brand.
Thanks to snap-enabled editorial featuring jewelry in an issue of Woman’s Day magazine, Target stores recently sold thousands of necklaces. Woman’s Day also created a Target-branded mobile site where consumers can shop. That same issue of Woman’s Day delivered more than 200,000 snaps across 10 advertiser units.
Rolling Stone’s Pick Up Lines Promote Pentel
Empower MediaMarketing recently worked with this new technology to help Pentel Pens promote a number of product lines, while touting the consumer benefit of having the “smoothest line.”
Running an ad in Rolling Stone magazine to reach young adults, Pentel encouraged readers to snap the ad and visit a website where they could rate pick up lines and enter a contest to win a Florida spring break trip for four. More than 1,000 people accessed the technology not only increasing website activity, but also allowing Pentel to provide additional content to its consumers.
The key to an effective snap ad campaign is close involvement by the magazine and the advertiser to create an engaging experience for the target audience with valuable content or an incentive. This requires the magazine to clearly inform and educate readers about the technology so that they are aware of the opportunity and understand how the technology works.
Mobile Connects Brands to Busy Consumers
Mobile gives magazine readers another opportunity to experience advertiser content. But publishers and marketers must harness insights from this new technology and apply it wisely. Done correctly, snap-enabled advertising is one way for publishers to enhance readership and engagement levels; while creating new ways for readers to connect with a magazine and its content.
By: Michael Anderson, Magazine Director
