The Awards Ceremony for the 2012 Effective Mobile Marketing Awards at the London Film Museum, is just under a month away, and tickets are selling out fast – in fact, there are less than 50 of the 280 places left.

As we approach the ceremony, we thought it would be good to take a look at the shortlisted entries in each category, so first up, today, we are looking at the contenders in the Most Effective Mobile Search Campaign/Solution category.

To be perfectly honest, the small number of entries in this sector – out of more than 200 entries in the Awards overall – surprised us, and is a sign, perhaps, that mobile search is a box that many brands have still not ticked.

As it is, then, the battle for the honours in his category is between Nectar and Aimia for the ‘Points for Search’ facility within the Nectar loyalty app; and Papa Johns and Net Media Planet for ‘The Price Isn’t Always Right’ campaign.

The Points for Search entry enables Nectar users to earn additional Nectar points by conducting Yahoo! searches from within the Nectar app. A toolbar on the Nectar website already incentivised users to search via Yahoo! in return for earning additional Nectar points. The ‘Nectar App – Points for Search’ project delivered similar functionality to the Nectar App.

When a user opens the Nectar app they are presented with the search box on the home screen and encouraged to search. Yahoo! search results are then loaded up within the app and a running total of searches and points are shown. Users earn one Nectar point for every two valid searches completed, up to a maximum of 50 points per month. A complex rules engine ensures that searches are natural, to prevent any fraudulent usage.

The revenue is generated whenever a user clicks on a sponsored result. Once a user does this Yahoo! receives money from the advertiser and Nectar receives some of this on a revenue share basis.
Within the first two weeks of the feature launching, over 15,000 collectors had completed valid searches and collected Nectar points. At the time of entry, the Nectar search app had driven over 800,000 searches to Yahoo! results on mobile from over 40,000 users.

Papa Johns and Net Media Planet’s ‘The Price Isn’t Always Right’ campaign was an effort by the pizza delivery company to move away from discounting, while maintaining volume and market share. Search agency Net Media Planet believed that by tapping into the true customer mindset of being hungry at the right time and place using mobile, it could drive volume sales whilst significantly improving profit margins.

It employed professional copywriters and conducted taste testing to identify adjectives to tantalise consumer tastebuds, all in 35 characters. Through this approach is drove Average Order Value up by 12.7 per cent, and also achieved 48 per cent higher revenue-per-click, without resorting to discounting.

Which of these great campaigns will take the honours in the Most Effective Mobile Search Campaign/Solution category on 29 November? Theres only one way to find out. To book your place, contact Lisa Slavin by email or telephone +44 (0) 20 7183 5285. Individual seats cost £250; a table of 10 costs £2,150.

The 2012 Effective Mobile Marketing Awards are sponsored by Openmarket, 7Digital, Celtra and Propel. To find out more about how to get your business or brand involved, contact John Owen by email or telephone on +44 (0) 77696 74824.