Pier 1 is running the mobile and audio ads within Pandora’s iPhone application. The company has dipped its toes in the mobile advertising arena before, especially during the different seasons.

“Pier 1 has the right mobile marketing timing, with their great mix of summer items, driving traffic to their stores with sale pricing, and well done imagery is a good way to gain traction on the ads; I would however encourage a few things that could help their mobile marketing strategy,” said Marci Troutman, CEO of SiteMinis, Atlanta.

“In mobile advertising it’s a great idea to promote a great offer or offers with a coupon versus driving consumers straight to a navigation on mobile where they have to browse- quick transactional calls to action with low friction consumer click through pages,” she said.

“While using mobile to drive traffic to the stores is a great way to link the digital to the physical, allowing consumers to purchase from their mobile is even better – minimally the ability to track consumer take rates through mobile by exclusive mobile offers that can be converted via on line or bricks-and-mortar.”

Ms. Troutman is not affiliated with Pier1. She commented based on her expertise on the subject.

Pier 1 did not respond to press inquiries.

Summer fun
The expandable mobile and audio ads encourage consumers to join the Summer party.

When users tap on the ads, they are redirected to a mobile landing page where they can browse products by gifts and occasions, home décor and accents, furniture and living and special values.

Consumers can also search for a specific item if they are looking for something particular and use the Find a Store tab to find the nearest Pier1 location and view the products in person.

The campaign also incorporates social elements, including Twitter and Facebook tab that encourage consumers to interact with the company on a deeper level.

Users are also welcomed to sign-up for Pier 1 emails or the company’s catalog.

Seasonal efforts
Pier 1 has been mobile quite a lot in the past few years.

Last year, the company strengthened its presence in the mobile space via targeted ads that highlighted its company’s fall products.

The company ran expandable mobile ads within Pandora’s iPhone app that led consumers to a mobile-optimized page where they could shop seasonal products, as well as other goods (see story).

Most recently, Pier1 continued to push its seasonal mobile ads that aimed to drive traffic to the company’s store locations and encourage consumers to shop the latest products (see story).

“When using banner ads to attract consumer CTR’s, make the destination a unique landing page that ties to the banner ad specifically,” Ms. Troutman said.

“Overall, great visually appealing ad that is perfect on timing.”

Final Take
Rimma Kats is associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York