Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Experienced Black Friday shoppers probably know RetailMeNot as a coupon hub, but like most mobile players, it wants to be known as a one-stop shopping app with features like rebates and location-based deals. So the Austin, Texas-based company is launching an ambitious holiday campaign that includes TV, influencers and social media.

"We're trying to build awareness—not just as a coupon destination, but as an end-to-end customer shopping journey," said Marissa Tarleton, CMO of RetailMeNot. "We have an awareness target that we're trying to build in social media, but we also have media that reinforces app engagement and media that drives commerce in-store."

The Snapchat piece of the campaign is particularly intriguing since it uses the ephemeral app's recently launched geofilters feature, which lets brands buy sponsored graphics that users can overlay on their Snaps. Starting next Wednesday, RetailMeNot will run ads around 3,000 U.S. shopping malls—Snapchat users who step inside can play around with four branded graphics.

This week Target became the latest retailer to integrate beacon technology into the shopping experience, announcing that it will test using low-energy Bluetooth beacons to deliver coupons and special offers to the mobile devices of shoppers when they’re near the product in question.

Target is currently testing the beacon technology at 50 stores in major markets across the country, including New York City, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco and Seattle. The retail giant plans to limit the number of mobile push notifications sent to each device to two per visit, in order to avoid driving shoppers insane....