Quick Case Study: McDonald’s Mobile Banner Ad

Expandable banner ads embedded in mobile applications are one of the newest and fastest growing marketing platforms. Here is an example of McDonald’s new banner ad campaign, which is one of the embedded ads in The Weather Channel iPhone application.

Clicking on the banner ad sends users to a mobile landing page where they can get more information about each item on the breakfast menu, as well as enter their ZIP code to find the McDonald’s closest to them. Having a mobile landing page dedicated to The Weather Channel application ads allows McDonald’s to track conversations initiated specifically through the banner ad.

While this campaign is both catchy and user friendly, the campaign itself does not take advantage of some of the more unique aspects of mobile marketing. Most notably, the landing page requires the user to enter a zip code when location information should already be available. There are several ways that location information could be collected from the initial page load, from metadata in the request to parameters pulled from the iPhone application itself and placed in the request URL. The data appears to be there, it just isn’t being used. Craig Etheridge, vice president of mobile advertising sales at The Weather Channel, states “Our rich-media expandable ad units offer a breakthrough creative execution. We provide advertisers the chance to push the envelope creatively on smartphones, with functionality and content built into the apps that benefit users and advertisers alike – opening the doors for expandable ads, click-to-video, GPS and more – while keeping the best user experience in mind.”