Smart Mobile Advertising Examples That Will Wow You

When it comes to mobile marketing, mobile advertising makes up a significant portion of a company’s budget. In 2023 alone, mobile advertising made up approximately 2/3rds of all app revenue, topping $336 billion, according to data.ai. That doesn’t even account for mobile ads delivered to users while browsing the internet on their phones. 

Mobile advertising is a unique medium that allows brands to target and engage targeted audiences. Unlike more traditional media, mobile enables interactive ads and can leverage a variety of other data, such as location, device, and more. Putting all these pieces together takes more than pushing out a static image, though. 

Here are four mobile advertising examples from brands that knocked it out of the park. 

1. Starbucks – An Interactive Mobile Advertising Storefront

Starbucks has always been one of those brands that invest heavily in staying at the forefront of digital and mobile advertising. And although their app is nothing new, it’s been one of the most successful payment apps in mobile app history. 

Like many brands, Starbucks has been working to infuse its mobile storefront with powerful AI to create in-app ads that are personalized to the user. That’s right, they use their app to track customer behavior and then deliver ads for their products tailored to each user. 

2. Samsung – A Winning Social Media Campaign 

Most people will tell you that they’re tired of social media advertising. Most people believe there are too many ads, and what they see is often completely irrelevant to their interests. The funny thing is that people love to win stuff—especially Samsung’s cutting-edge Galaxy Z Flip 4 smartphone. And the only way to win the phone was to watch their ad. 

Samsung used this formula and advertising algorithms that impact what people see and when to drive interest in their smartphone. Where most advertisers often try to make their targeting as broad as possible (not always the best strategy), Samsung took the opposite route and made their targeting extremely narrow. 

Then, as buzz started to build about winning the smartphone, users would search online for the ads. And, because of the way search algorithms work, the more users searched for the ad, the more likely they were to see it! It was a brilliant play to draw people into exposing themselves to ads and self-select targeting. 

So, how effective was this strategy? 

According to Samsung, they shipped more than 16 billion foldable smartphones in 2022, an increase of 73% over 2021. 

3. Netflix – The Anti-Marketing Mobile Campaign

What makes a streaming media property a runaway success? Sure, you might point to the script, the actors involved, or the direction (among other things), but can mobile advertising also contribute? 

Netflix found the answer to this question: a resounding YES! 

Last year, Netflix launched the series Wednesday, based on the famous Addams Family character. To promote it, Netflix developed an “anti-marketing” campaign that played on the character’s nihilistic and dark personality. 

While the campaign had multiple prongs across various channels, their mobile campaign was an eye-catcher. Netflix ran advertising on Uber with a series of dark and funny mobile videos and display ads. 

Just how successful was the campaign? 

How about making Wednesday the second most popular English-language show on the streaming service, driving more than 1 billion hours of views across 150 million households worldwide? 

Oh—and they won a bronze Clio Award to boot! 

4. McDonald’s – Mobile Game App of Falling Food

Everyone is familiar with the iconic fast-food chain, but how do you get people to engage with your app and capture more value?

It turns out that gamification is the answer! 

McDonald’s developed a rich-media interstitial ad unit with an in-built game that challenged users to win points by “bagging” falling food. They were directed to a mobile app download with instructions on redeeming those points. 

This gamified strategy drove over 1 million unique users, over 400,000 engagements, and an astonishing 87.82% Measurement of Attention and Transparency viewability. 

That’s a smashing success by nearly every standard. 

Mobile Advertising Delivers Results

With its unparalleled ability to combine personalization, interactivity, targeting, and creativity, mobile advertising can deliver stellar results when aligned with strategic goals. 

Tailored in-app ads, gamified rich media, narrowly targeted video, and unique “anti-marketing” have led to greater consumer engagement, product demand, app adoption, streaming viewership, and even industry awards. These examples make clear that brands attuned to mobile’s potential can connect meaningfully with target users anywhere, anytime.

Are you looking for creative ways to drive engagement with your mobile app? Aragon Premium may be the agency partner you are looking for. We are a trusted partner for many brands and have the mobile marketing expertise to expand your user base. We’d be happy to collaborate with you and help your app succeed.