Top 10 luxury brand mobile campaigns of 2012

Luxury marketers added mobile-based utility or entertainment to cross-channel campaigns this year to gain exposure among savvy smartphone and tablet users.

Mobile touch points included in multichannel efforts by luxury marketers helped to extend these campaigns onto a medium accessed daily by consumers. The best efforts of 2012 used the medium to reinforce status, while keeping the brand top of mind among the target audience.

Here are the top 10 luxury brand mobile efforts of 2012, in alphabetical order.

Burberry’s weather campaign
British fashion house Burberry married its heritage and the elements through its first weather-themed campaign that comprised an application sponsorship, out-of-home ads and social media.

In an effort that also somewhat combined the 2012 London Olympics, Burberry complemented its mobile app sponsorship with a social push and out-of-home placement in flagship cities.

Burberry used the weather element to tie itself to its London heritage that is famous for its rainy weather.

Burberry sponsored The Weather Channel’s app for the iPad in August.

The Weather Channel app allows consumers to look at local temperatures, maps, news, videos and 10-day forecasts on a three-quarter page screen upon opening.

Consumers could see the Burberry logo peeking out on the top right-hand corner above the local weather.

Cadillac’s ATS vs. The World campaign
General Motors’ Cadillac pushed the new ATS model through augmented reality installations in top U.S. marketers during the fourth quarter by transforming street murals into driving experiences on smartphones and tablets.

Each mural showed an international location where the ATS was tested. Cities included New York, Miami, Chicago and San Francisco.

The augmented reality experience began Sept. 21 in Miami. The two-day street installation showed the ATS on the Monaco Grand Prix speedway.

Consumers could download an app, aim their smartphone or tablet at the mural and move the device to test-drive the ATS.

The automaker provided tablets equipped with the app at the installation as well.

Crystal Cruises’ Begin A New Story campaign
Crystal Cruises rebranded itself in 2012 through a multichannel campaign called "Begin a New Story" that focuses on consumer storytelling.

The campaign reached affluent travelers with multichannel efforts such as print ads with digital watermarks that brought consumers to mobile-optimized content and a branded storytelling smartphone app.

Crystal Cruises bridged the gap between old- and new-world technology via its print ads that used the Aurasma mobile app to bring the static page to life.

The ads appeared in Condé Nast Traveler, National Geographic Traveler, Town & Country, Travel & Leisure, Coastal Living, Elle Décor, Food & Wine and Forbes Life.

A short video detailing the cruise line’s new Begin a New Story campaign played for the viewer on their mobile device.

Also, Crystal Cruises released its first smartphone app this year that enables travelers to share photos via social media, email and traditional mail.

The Storyteller app lets travelers edit and share personal vacation photos from their iPhones while traveling. The app centers on branded storytelling to go along with the Begin a New Story campaign.

Ermenegildo Zegna’s Z Zegna campaign
Ermenegildo Zegna launched a new app for the iPhone and iPad that offered two exclusive products following the live streaming of its spring/summer 2013 show.

The Z Zegna Experience app was designed to focus on the preparations surrounding the new Z Zegna fashion show on June 25 that live-streamed within the device.

Z Zegna streamed content for tech-savvy fashion followers in anticipation of the new collection.

Consumers had the ability to buy two exclusive products – a hybrid classic city shoe and a leather iPad case – when they appeared on the runway. A few luxury marketers have offered product buys from the runway, but not many of them offered delivery this quickly.

Lexus’s Sports Illustrated ad
Toyota Corp.’s Lexus engaged Sports Illustrated readers by letting them interact with a print ad for the ES model with their iPad to add movement to the static page.

The Oct. 15 issue of Sports Illustrated contained an ad for the 2013 ES that looked similar to the brand’s typical print placements.

The automaker used CinePrint technology so that when users put the Lexus ES print ad over their iPad while playing a video found on the tablet version of the magazine, there were light and sound effects on the print ad.

Neiman Marcus’ NM Service program
Department store chain Neiman Marcus launched a new experience in four of its U.S. locations this year that serves to heighten customer service and the in-store atmosphere with a personal shopping mobile app.

The NM Service app works on a few different levels.

To help entice consumers in-store, the app sends users information about new arrivals and store events.

There are targets set up around store entrances that make the app live. When this happens, consumers get notifications for new arrivals, store events and the salespeople working that day.

Consumers can choose to link with sales associates who will know if they want to try on certain items in the dressing room or need any additional help.

The Neiman Marcus app increases its usefulness by acting as a QR code reader.

Neiman Marcus places signs and stands around the store that indicate the season’s new trends. If users scan the code, they can see all of the items in the Neiman Marcus location that pertain to that particular trend.

Ralph Lauren’s New York Times app sponsorship
U.S. lifestyle brand Ralph Lauren bought out a solo sponsorship of The New York Times iPad app for the second time with content, shoppable items and player biographies to flaunt its partnership with Team USA in the 2012 London Olympics.

The ads were shown on the Sports, Olympics, Home & Garden, Travel, Fashion and T Magazine sections of the Times app. It ran in August.

Ralph Lauren showed Team USA favorites such as swimmer Ryan Lochte and soccer player Heather Mitts. They were featured on every section front and on every other article page within the app.

Clicking on the ads brought up content including featured articles, videos, “meet the athletes” and click-to-commerce links.

In the commerce section, consumers could create their own custom apparel based on the outfits designed for the Olympic team. The label designed Team USA’s Closing Ceremony parade uniforms and village wear.

Stella McCartney’s L.IL.Y campaign
British label Stella McCartney introduced L.IL.Y, its first fragrance in almost a decade, during the first quarter through a mobile app, Web effort and partnership with London-based department store Selfridges that included augmented reality, video and user interaction.

The brand debuted the fragrance via the Aurasma augmented reality app on which consumers could use their smartphone or in-store iPads to access content.

Consumers were able to watch and interact with campaign videos with a touch-responsive “reveal” effect.

Users could create and share collages made from the campaign through Twitter, Facebook and email. Along with that, there were unique Instagram formats to enhance the user mobile experience.

The app also used geo-targeting when a consumer was in the Selfridges area that activated the interactive tab on the app.

When consumers were in-store, they could use the app on their smartphone or the provided iPads to activate a 3D display of a behind-the-scenes video or a large animation of the L.I.L.Y bottle.

Starwood’s SPG Member Card for Passbook
Starwood Hotels & Resorts enabled its preferred guests to upload their member card to the Passbook app for the iPhone’s iOS 6 for instant access to account information and reservations at all nine of its brands including the St. Regis and The Luxury Collection.

Passbook lets iPhone users who are Starwood Preferred Guest members add their cards to the platform and see account details such as Starpoints balance, year-to-date earned nights, customer service contacts and upcoming stay details.

Members can download their member card straight from the brand's updated SPG mobile app.

Users can also add an SPG Stay Pass to Passbook that corresponds to an upcoming hotel stay and shows a complete reservation confirmation.

Swarovski’s Fashion’s Night Out campaign
Precision-cut crystal maker Swarovski tapped consumers’ competitive spirit in its Fashion’s Night Out campaign by hosting a street-style contest via the Instagram mobile app to be judged the night of the event.

The brand chose mobile to host the bulk of “The Style Elite of FNO” national campaign that centered on a user-made look book created via an exclusive partnership with 52Grams, a mobile platform where brands can curate shoppable look books from Instagram image

Swarovski’s mobile contest required consumers to submit an image of them during FNO Sept. 6 via the Instagram app using the hashtag #SwarovskiFNO.

The 52Grams look book showed all of the tagged images. If a user uploaded an image of Swarovski jewelry, 52Grams tagged the image with a link to the item on Swarovski’s ecommerce site.

At its Madison Avenue store in New York, Swarovski offered consumers who entered the contest an “Instaprint” of their Instagram photos.

Swarovski “style scouts” went out on the street with crystallized iPhones and crystal tattoos to take pictures of consumers taking part in FNO. These were also uploaded to Instagram with the hashtag.