Carphone Warehouse proves mobile’s powerful multi-channel effect

As head of online marketing for Carphone Warehouse, Gareth Jones instinctively believes in the “ripple effect” of mobile. “We have this hypothesis that a lot of what you do on mobile may not immediately affect the mobile sale, but that mobile is the glue that ties together multi-channel activity,” he says. “So a pound invested in mobile shouldn’t be assessed only from a mobile ROI.”

An unbeatable opportunity to test this theory landed in Gareth’s lap when Best Buy UK, a joint venture between Best Buy Inc and Carphone Warehouse Group, launched a fully transactional mobile website. Although Best Buy as a brand was subsequently pulled back from the UK, the insights Carphone Warehouse gained about mobile’s contribution to multi-channel brand building has already been built into its strategy.

Starting from a baseline of low brand awareness of Best Buy in the UK, Gareth and his team implemented an integrated Google advertising approach to supplement existing search activity. A series of roadblocks ran on YouTube for mobile to raise awareness, while pre-rolls on YouTube showed the brand’s TV ads. They also ran display ads across the AdMob network. Through these means, they hoped to gain mass reach and high frequency at relatively low cost while interacting with users through an on-the-go rich media experience.

The campaign saw a 45% increase in desktop CTR, a 30% increase in tablet CTR and a 29% lift in mobile CTR. Over the weekend of the YouTube takeovers, Best Buy brand terms saw an organic lift of about 25%. Meanwhile, mobile traffic grew week-on-week by 37% off the back of the YouTube takeover.

But these numbers are only part of the story; Carphone Warehouse also derived rich analytical insights about user behaviour. YouTube results provided much deeper information than what’s available when users consume a TV ad on TV, and the CPM for running it on YouTube was around 20% cheaper than TV boxes too. The YouTube roadblocks ran on specific days, and this enabled Gareth to study the mobile’s multi-channel influence. “We pretty much saw an immediate ripple effect,” he reveals. “Post-roadblock we saw a 29% increase in the subsequent week in brand searches on desktop.”

Earlier this year when Gareth’s team launched m.carphonewarehouse.com – the first fully transactional site in the telco category – they applied the insights from Best Buy and rolled them straight into the mobile plan for Carphone Warehouse. Going forward, the aim is to replicate the successful Best Buy Mobile model outside of North America and Western Europe too, and when that happens they’ll be ready.

Read the full case study on Best Buy UK’s mobile activity here.

Posted by: Matt Brocklehurst, Product Marketing Mobile Advertising

Carphone Warehouse proves mobile’s powerful multi-channel effect
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