"Oh, did you tap by mistake? It happens." the most creative mobile ads from the past few years

The companies who bother to optimise banner ads for mobile, usually do this by taking off some of the text and adapt the scale. But this is only technical responsivity and doesn't maximize the full potential of mobile ads. I show you a few exciting examples where the features of a smartphone were creatively exploited.

While most of us find the banners covering our full screen on the mobile very disruptive, smart mobile ads help and entertain their audience, instead of being a pain. Brands can make use of the unique features of a smartphone, like touchscreen, GPS and in-built camera. And sometimes you don't need anything complex, just some honest words.

Did you tap by mistake?

This campaign by IKEA didn't even need a heavy budget. They simply honestly reacted to the fact that some of us (according to some surveys 60% of us) tap the banner by mistake as an attempt to close or remove it, which is really annoying. IKEA displayed this frustration on their upfront banners: "Oh, did you tap it by mistake? It happens." Their click rate was three times as much as usual, altogether 400,000 people landed on their page. They had a message match there: "Where life happens."

Closing the banner is dangerous

The tablet ad of Bradesco Seguros insurance company looks like a simple car ad until you swipe it to get rid of it. At this moment the car starts and crashes, and the message appears: "The worst things happen unexpectedly."

They used the power of surprise at a moment when people were about to leave their ad.

Virtual armchair in your flat - Augmented reality in mobile ad

The AR application of IKEA made it possible for users to see how the specific pieces of furniture would look like in their flat. Users could also get additional information on products in the legendary catalogue. The application was downloaded 6,2 million times which made it the most popular marketing application of all times.

What I really like about this campaign that it didn't only focus on the new technology per se, but used it to create a really useful service for clients and prospects. Brands sometimes can be carried away by the abundance of solutions technology offers an tend to use these without a real purpose. In the IKEA campaign, however, the technology (AR) cleverly supports the need of customers to see the products in their own home.

People do watch (long) video banners

The launch of Nissan Rouge was promoted by a video clip showing the car fighting with evil snowmen. The 1-minute video is an intriguing film in itself, but watchers could stop it at certain (pre-announced) hotspots to learn some interesting information (e.g. that the lowest temperature ever measured in Canada was -63 Celsius.) 73% of the people who started to watch the video finished it, and 93% of watchers gave some interaction! The golden oldie "Did you know it?" technique proved itself again.

Should Sara stay in or go out?

In the mobile video by Victoria Secret, users could choose if the model should stay in or go out. The idea is very simple and basically works with the choice between two videos on top. You can imagine how many people watched both versions, again and again :)

Mobile ad as an assistance

UK Insurance company Hiscox was the first one to use geolocation with their mobile ad in Covent Garden, London. As soon as people in the location signed in the wifi network operated by Openzone, they found an ad of Hiscox relating to the place and also to the billboards to be seen locally. This obviously works without the billboards if you give people extra information on the location they are. Or you can target a certain type of audience presumably staying at a certain location, e.g. people who are waiting for their kids playing in an adventure park could be targeted with tips on where to spend a family break.

Audi launched a start-stop application which warns you to close unused applications to save the battery life. This resonated well with the start-stop engine which helps drivers to save on petrol and energy.

Nivea had a successful campaign of their sun protection cream taking the concept of 'protection' a bit further. They had magazine ads containing a wristband for kids which had to be linked to a Nivea application and warned parents if their kid went beyond a set distance on the beach.

These ads combined more channels successfully and apart from promoting the product included branding and PR (customers were asking for the Nivea wristband even years after the ad.)

When two giants cooperate

In the campaign commissioned by Google and signed off by Coca-Cola people could send a bottle of coke after clicking on the mobile ad distributed in the Google MobAd system. The users could write in the banner where they wanted the bottle to be sent - this could be on the other edge of the planet. An animated map showed the route of the bottle and then it arrived in specifically designed vending machines to be discovered by a passer-by. They could send a thank you message and shoot a short video of how they liked the gift. The videos were watched by millions.

Even if this is a large scale campaign that not many could afford, is a good example of how to cleverly spend the money and how the dots can be connected to create a truly multi-channel campaign. Also, banner ads could work to promote charity if the story is good.