With the ever-popular posts kicking around the tech world regarding mobile advertising, I thought it would be appropriate to bring about an interesting case study in which Ace Hardware teamed up with Microsoft Mobile to create a robust mobile advertising campaign that would help increase store foot traffic and brand awareness.

Ace Hardware, one of America’s most historic local maintenance and repair businesses, wanted to help differentiate their business and reach loyal customers with special offers and promotions during the 2009 holiday season.

Ace Hardware decided to target users with 4 different promotions:

• 20% Off Bag Sale – Consumers received 20% off every item in their shopping bag
• Tis The Season – Holiday ramp up for decorations, ladders, etc.
• After Thanksgiving Sale – Storewide black Friday promotion
• Your Holiday Helpful Place – In-store drive to position Ace as the Holiday place

The campaign consisted of running short, high-impact media blitzes over two, six-day time periods. Behavioral targeting was used in conjunction with effective mobile banner ads to drive further engagement with Microsoft Mobile’s targeting capabilities.

So the big question is…did it work?

Some metrics aside, (cost?) I would say the campaign was an overall success. The mobile campaign drove a 60% lift in unaided brand awareness and reached 101% lift in people ages 24-54. The store traffic across the board experienced an 8% increase among the primary target audience, ages 35-54 who saw the mobile ads.

This is an interesting take on the mobile landscape, and is a great window into just how powerful the mobile market is, and will be (exponentially) in the years to come. The great thing about mobile is it’s still so new, so get out there and test!