Mobile Marketing

Merrillville, Ind. - Homeowners looking to upgrade their backyard in time for summer can now enter membership-based buying club DirectBuy’s “Backyard Dream-Over” sweepstakes for a chance to win outdoor furniture, appliances, and more. DirectBuy is utilizing gamification techniques by letting consumers play a game on mobile phone, PC or tablet for a chance to win up to 600 sweepstakes entries while learning about DirectBuy.

Armonk, N.Y. - Consumers headed online for their Valentine’s Day shopping this year. According to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark data, during Valentine’s week (Feb. 7 – 13) online shopping rose 10.2% from the same period in 2014.

In addition to overall sales, consumers ramped up their shopping efforts the week leading up to Valentine’s Day. Growth was seen in key verticals including:

Seattle - A significant increase in selling, general and administrative expenses, as well as higher marketing expenses, helped plunge net income at pure play retailer Zulily Inc. below Wall Street expectations during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014. Net income fell 15% to $10.88 million from $12.75 million.

Minneapolis – Technology lovers who fall in love have a new online wedding registry option. On Feb. 16, Best Buy Co. Inc. will launch the Best Buy Wedding Registry.

Couples can create and manage their registry online or through the Best Buy mobile app. By early April, in-store kiosks in all Best Buy locations will help registrants and gift-givers view and print wedding registry lists. Couples will also have the option of syncing their registry with MyRegistry.com and TheKnot.com.

Carrollton, Texas - In a move designed to offer its guests a more enhanced, robust and personalized experience both inside and outside of the restaurant, TGI Fridays has selected two new agencies – Made Movement (Made) and Meredith Xcelerated Marketing (MXM) – to manage all future digital marketing, e-mail and technology campaigns.

An agreement between Mobiquity Networks and personal shopping concierge service ShopAdvisor is giving retailers intriguing new options to drive sales by serving offers to shoppers predisposed to purchase certain products. 

Austin, Texas – The husband or boyfriend who forgets to buy Valentines flowers until late in the day Feb. 14 now has a safeguard. Whole Foods Market and the Instacart grocery delivery app are offering Valentine’s flowers delivered in as little as one hour across 15 major U.S. metros.

Reston, Va. – Despite the popular image of “showrooming” mobile shoppers using their devices to find better prices on in-store items, 85% of consumers actively shop with a mobile device from home, even if other devices are available. In addition, the “Mobile Spend in 2015” study from Contact Solutions shows that 26% of consumers do in fact showroom, while 27% will make mobile purchases from a store they are shopping in.

Other findings include: