Hershey’s Scharffen Berger tests homescreen mobile ads for brand-building

By Lauren Johnson

September 18, 2013

Scharffen Berger's mobile ad

Hershey?s Scharffen Berger is experimenting with a new type of mobile advertising that takes advantage of a mobile device?s homescreen to drive consumers to a wine and chocolate tasting.

The premium chocolate brand is running a series of ads within the Locket mobile application that show up on a consumer?s homescreen when a device is locked. In addition to?the?mobile ad promoting?an event at a winery in California,?Scharffen Berger will run another campaign for the holidays.

?We?re actively shifting money towards mobile, and the reason why it fits so well in this case is that we have done research and found that our consumers have a higher propensity to own a smartphone,? said Sean Maurer, brand director at Scharffen Berger, San Francisco.

?The thing that really attracted us to this was the ability to attract consumers when a message is top-of-mind,? he said. ?If they do it correctly, it almost becomes a joy to open up their phone mixed in with high-quality mobile ads that are brand-leveraging versus a call-to-action in a game that is not well-done.

?When you?re doing something online, you try to ignore the ad by clicking out of them or finding the skip button, but this for us was really about the ability to connect with consumers on a different level.?

How it works
The Locket app is available for Google Play, and once users set up their account, the app can be set as the default home screen when a mobile device is locked.

Consumers can then choose to either interact with an ad or swipe it away from the homescreen.

Scharffen Berger is running 12 different ads that invite consumers to visit Beringer Winery in Napa Valley, CA on Sept. 28 for a $20 two-for-one offer on a wine and chocolate special at the winery.

Each time that a consumer opens up their mobile device, they will receive a new ad.

Scharffen Berger's mobile ads

As the event gets closer in time, the messaging on the ads will change to become more direct in driving consumers to the event.

When consumers click on the ad, they are prompted to sign-up for the event.

After the event ends, Scharffen Berger will run another national campaign for the holidays that will focus on gifting and branding, per Mr. Maurer.

The national campaign will involve Scharffen Berger?s partner retailers to drive in-store traffic.

Creative for the campaign was custom-built by Locket.

Another screenshot of the ads

New mobile opportunities
Finding different ways besides banners to advertise on mobile is nothing new, but not a lot of campaigns have leveraged the homescreen for advertising.

The challenge though is finding a way to make some of these campaigns scale for brands.

?For us, we?re hoping that it takes off, because the key for us is that the better the experience is, the more valuable [mobile advertising] becomes for us,? Mr. Maurer said.

?Right now, it is more of a test,? he said. ?For it to become a more core part for us, realistically they have to grow the user base.?

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York

Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer. Reach her at lauren@mobilemarketer.com. Follow her on Twitter: @LaurenJohnson.

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Mercedes even tests its long-wheelbase S-Class on the 'Ring

Mercedes classifies its models by "class," but as often as not, that comes down to one body-style. Not so the new S-Class, which is destined to push the boundaries of how many variants it can get, even without resorting to BMW-style slantbacks.

Daimler's new flagship luxury sedan is already available in two wheelbase lengths (only the longer of which will be sold Stateside), and will be offered in coupe (and convertible?) form as well. But before all's said and done, Mercedes plans on stretching the sedan even further. The largest and most opulent will be the Pullman version that will fill the void left by the departure of the Maybach brand, but slotting in between that and the existing versions will be the one depicted in this spy video.

Expected to offer an extra ten inches or so of wheelbase to the benefit of rear seat legroom, the extra-long-wheelbase S-Class will be most readily identifiable (in case there's not a standard S-Class around for comparison) by the extra side window placed aft of the rear door.

What's particularly interesting about this spy video, though, is where it's shot: the Nürburgring Nordschleife. That in and of itself tells you that Mercedes is intent on mitigating the wobble and heft associated with stretching a wheelbase that long and living up to its own vehicle-dynamics standards. See how the supersized S-Class hustles in the video below.

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Facebook tests auto-play videos, explores video ad potential

By Alexei Oreskovic

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 12 | Thu Sep 12, 2013 5:00pm EDT

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Facebook Inc is testing videos that play automatically on mobile versions of its service, setting the stage to turn the 1.15 billion-member social network into an attractive venue for lucrative, television-like video ads.

The videos will be silent when they appear in a Facebook user's newsfeed, but expand and play the audio when clicked, the company said in a post on its official blog on Thursday.

Only videos posted to Facebook by individual users, celebrities or musicians will have the auto-play function during the test, Facebook said. But it noted that it would "explore how to bring this to marketers in the future."

The test, which involves a small group of U.S. users, is likely to ratchet up expectations for Facebook video ads. According to several media reports in recent months, Facebook is planning to charge brand marketers $1 million to $2.4 million to show 15-second auto-play video ads on its social network.

Facebook's stock set a new all-time high of $45.62 on Thursday, as investors anticipated new revenue sources such as video ads and ads in its popular Instagram photo-sharing app.

By conducting a small test before selling auto-play ads to advertisers, Facebook will be able to make sure the technology is up to snuff and to gauge users' response.

"Because bringing video to life in a feed is something that's going to really change the way users' experience Facebook ... we wanted to sort of tread water lightly and start with this and see how it goes," said Facebook spokeswoman Momo Zhou.

Auto-play videos will work on Facebook's mobile apps for smartphones running Google Inc's Android software and Apple Inc's iOS software.

In internal tests so far, the auto-play ads did not seem to significantly reduce battery life, Zhou said. The videos stop playing once a user scrolls past them in the newsfeed, she noted, and users have the option of switching off the auto-play feature.

Auto-play will work only with videos that users upload directly to Facebook. Videos from external websites such as YouTube will not work with the auto-play feature in the test.

Facebook does not expect the auto-play videos to have a big impact on smartphone users' wireless data usage and monthly phone bills, Zhou said.

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Another U.S. porn actor tests positive for HIV, leading to moratorium

By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES | Fri Sep 6, 2013 11:36pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A U.S. porn actor has tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS, the third such case reported in less than three weeks, leading a Los Angeles-based trade group for adult filmmakers to call a fresh nationwide moratorium on Friday on productions.

The infections follow a vote last year by Los Angeles County residents to require porn actors to wear condoms when having sex on set, a measure that proponents of the requirement complain is largely going unenforced in the county.

In the latest infection, a doctor affiliated with health screening facilities used by the pornography industry reported that a performer had tested positive for HIV, said Joanne Cachapero, membership director of the Free Speech Coalition, the trade group for adult filmmakers.

Details on the porn performer, including gender and any adult film company that employed him or her, were not released by the group, and Cachapero said she could not discuss in which part of the country the person was based.

"While we don't have evidence to suggest an on-set transmission as opposed to a transmission from non-industry (off-camera) related activity, we are taking every measure to determine the source and to protect the performer pool," the Free Speech Coalition said in a statement.

The group quickly called for another moratorium on porn productions to remain in effect indefinitely, Cachapero said.

The multibillion-dollar adult film industry, centered in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, has vigorously opposed efforts to require condom use on set.

It protested against a 2012 voter-approved measure requiring condoms to be used in Los Angeles County and has argued against efforts for such regulation at the state level that would be specifically geared to film productions.

Even before the most recent infection, the Free Speech Coalition had called a moratorium on August 21 after an actress who worked under the name Cameron Bay revealed that she had contracted HIV. The moratorium ended on August 27, Cachapero said.

A second porn performer, who goes by the stage name Rod Daily, said on Tuesday via Twitter that he had contracted HIV. The Free Speech Coalition said at the time that his statement appeared authentic, but did not then call a moratorium.

That is in part because Daily pursued his own medical care, rather than working through the porn industry's health screening system that triggered the moratorium in this latest case, Cachapero said.

Michael Weinstein, whose AIDS Healthcare Foundation led the successful 2012 campaign to require condoms in porn productions in Los Angeles County, expressed dismay at the new infection.

"I'm sad for the person involved," he said. "But I'm really sad for our community, that we're treating these people as utterly disposable."

Weinstein said a male porn performer who he believes to be the fourth person linked to the adult film industry in recent days to test positive for HIV has contacted his organization, but he declined to release details about the man.

Los Angeles County public health officials have done little to enforce the condom requirement, he said.

"The reality of the matter is they wouldn't even defend it in the courts, we had to step up and defend the constitutionality of it, which we won," Weinstein said.

A spokesman for a county supervisor and a representative for the local health department could not be reached for comment late on Friday.

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Walsh)

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