Hearst’s Elle Magazine is expanding partnerships with retail applications ShopAdvisor and RetailMeNot following a successful effort in which users were pushed to stores to purchase its 30th-anniversary edition.

The women’s publication successfully drove purchases of the edition along with featured apparel through beacons and mobile commerce to celebrate its anniversary. Elle’s 12 percent engagement rate through these mobile channels alludes to a more intertwined future with media publications and retailers.

“Mobile was central to the program,” said Scott Cooper, founder and president of ShopAdvisor. “We are able to capture engagement from print or digital properties, and engage them on their mobile device when entering a geofence or approaching a beacon.

“Native ad content, combined with mobile proximity marketing was the key to driving results 100 times better than industry benchmarks,” he said.

Partnership success
ShopAdvisor users and Elle fans were treated to a unique retail experience in which they were able to purchases apparel, accessories and products from the publication’s brand partners that were featured in the issue. Users were able to click the Elle 30th Anniversary page within the app then browse and purchase items.

The campaign made for the first publication to introduce partnerships with beacon and geo-fencing technology, allowing readers to shop its editions (see more).

RetailMeNot also prompted users through beacons to visit nearby bricks-and-mortar locations that sold the magazine, driving sales of not only the publication but also impulse purchases for retailers.

Consumers were also served editor-picked style recommendations and in-store deals and discounts. Brands such as Barnes & Nobles, Levi’s, Guess, and Vince Camuto were a few of the advertisers and partners and retailers in the campaign.

Elle was able to target more than 25 million consumers between audiences on ShopAdvior and RetailMeNot.

The content paired with the commerce ability allowed Elle to tap into a connection of great use to consumers. Readers are accessing the publication for recommendation and shopping purposes, serving commerce abilities with the editorial experience is highly beneficial.

Benefits of beacons
The use of beacons also helps this greatly as well as it is catching users while they are the go and more available for shopping opportunities. Hitting shoppers with notifications of deals or sales nearby can generate a bevvy of impulse purchases.

Women’s retailer Vanity is joining forces with mobile shopping companion shopkick to offer customers rewards for visiting the dressing room, a tactic which other brands may leverage to ramp up in-store sales (see more).

“Publishing partners can demonstrate that their ads engage the consumer and drive them to the store,” said Mr. Cooper. “As a result they are able to attract new and more advertisers with this an enhanced value proposition.

“On the brand and retail side those partners saw significant and measurable measurable increases in foot traffic as a result of the program,” he said. “One of the participating retailers reported shopping basket sizes significantly larger than the average from users redeeming the mobile offer via a unique promotion code.”

Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Commerce Daily