Buick Zeroes In on Verizon iPhone Users with Mobile Ad Campaign

Research suggests that display abs in mobile may get much more attention from viewers than similar ads on Web sites. Phone screens are small, and most pages don’t deliver more than one ad per page refresh, letting that ad grab the viewer’s undivided attention without the clutter experienced on a typical Web page.

But there are ways to parlay that built-in advantage into even greater engagement. And auto maker Buick opted for one of those tactics when it wanted to publicize [its new Buick Achievers college scholarship fund: When the Apple iPhone 4 first went on sale to users of the Verizon Network last February, Buick and agency Starcom launched a five-week campaign using the Millennial Media mobile network to deliver ads promoting the fund solely to Verizon iPhone users, all of whom were just turning on their phones for the first time.

The ads appeared on a number of sites and apps within the Millennial Media network, including Accuweather, Flightview, CBS, AOL, People, Mashable, Travel Channel, Pro Football Weekly and Pandora. Users could not tell from the ads that they were being targeted to a specific device on a specific carrier, but they were.

The ads were mostly banners that expanded with a click and served up a link to the Buick Achievers Scholarship Web site. Buick was the exclusive advertiser on those Millennial sites for the five-week campaign, producing maximum exposure.

“While we didn’t dedicate a huge amount of resources to the campaign, we wanted to generate some quick awareness,” says Craig Bierley, director of advertising and promotions at Buick. The scholarship, aimed at rewarding both scholastics and community service, expects to award $25,000 annually to up to 1,000 recipients beginning in the 2011-2012 college year. That didn’t leave a lot of time to build awareness.

“Normally we’d announce a program like that the previous fall, so we had a very short application period and had to take some steps to build awareness fast,” he says. “We saw this as an opportunity to reach a highly connected, younger audience in a mobile platform.”

Beyond simply spreading the word about the Buick Achievers scholarships, the car company also hopes the highly targeted mobile campaign will help garner it a reputation as a tech-savvy brand—something the 18-to-24 demographic might not associate with the Buick nameplate.

“We try to find media partners and properties that position us in a progressive space,” Bierley says. “We’re tremendously successful selling Buick to the older generation, but their numbers aren’t sufficient to permit us to continue to grow our business. So we’re looking to lower our average age to attract new buyers.”

For that same reason, Buick was one of the first three advertisers in the iPad version of the Wall Street Journal, which came factory-loaded on the device, he says.

The Verizon iPhone launch last February was “an event that had been watched and waited on for years,” says Marcus Startzel, senior vice president of sales for Millennial Media. “They saw an opportunity to take advantage of something big that was happening in the wireless world.”

Buick was also one of the first advertisers to partner with Google on advertising within its Google Goggles smartphone application last November. Users could open the application—then available only for Android phones but now in an iPhone version too—point their camera at selected print ads from Buick, as well as Disney, Diageo, T-Mobile and Delta Airlines, and take a picture. The app used visual recognition to detect the ads and bring up links that users could click through to get to a mobile product site for Buick.

Buick also offers a mobile app for iPhone and Android devices that lets users control their car’s door locks, horn, lights and remote starting.

While Bierley would not specify how many impressions of the Buick ad were served or how many clickthroughs resulted, he said the company was “extremely pleased” with the response to the campaign.

Bierley says he is determined to enhance Buick’s presence in mobile both through display ads and via an optimized mobile Web site. “We were the first brand [at General Motors] to have a mobile site, and we’re going to continue to build out our presence in the mobile space. More and more consumers are consuming media in the mobile space. I want to build institutional capabilities in my organization so that we’re really good at developing mobile content.”

Funded by the GM Foundation, the Buick Achievers scholarship will provide up to $25,000 a year for four years to 100 students majoring in science, technology, engineering, math, marketing, business administration or related fields. Scholarships are renewable for four years. The new fund will also provide 1,000 students with $2,000 sholarships, also renewable for four years.