MillerCoors-owned Blue Moon is centering a new mobile advertising campaign around location and context that is ultimately aimed at driving sales of its products.

The ads are appearing inside Fandango?s iPhone application and encourage users to find a nearby watering hole before going to see a movie. Blue Moon is also incorporating its mobile site into the campaign.

?Location and the message platform ? whether [it is] apps, SMS or ads ? are simply the canvas, and marketing is the art of delivering relevant messages in context,? said Rip Gerber, CEO of Locaid Technologies, San Francisco.

?Gone are the days of email ads or snail mail coupons that typically get lost in a pile or overlooked outside of the inbox. Location and relevancy create a more polished and actionable experience for a customer in real time,? he said.

Mr. Gerber is not affiliated with Blue Moon. He commented based on his expertise on the subject.

Blue Moon did not respond to press inquiries.

Drink up
The copy for the mobile ads read, ?Enjoy dinner before the movie? and encourage users to tap to learn more.

The ads then expand and ask if it is OK to use a consumer?s location. Once a consumer agrees, a map appears that shows nearby restaurants, bars and stores that sell Blue Moon products.

Each location is highlighted with a marker that also gives users the address and current distance from where they are.

This approach works for Blue Moon on a few different levels.

The company does not have a commerce-enabled site or app and consumers are not likely to buy beer from their devices. Therefore, running a location-based campaign that aims to drive sales at the company?s distribution centers is a smart way for Blue Moon to take advantage of mobile advertising.

Additionally, the ad is tailored towards a specific type of content instead of the spray-and-pray tactic that many marketers take with mobile advertising.

Given a consumer?s interest in finding movie times and locations, there is a good chance that a user would also be interested in finding a nearby restaurant or bar while they are out as well.

The ads are another example of recent campaigns that are aimed at higher mobile engagement by adding context to the mix.

For instance, Clinique recently ran a commerce-enabled campaign on Glamour?s mobile site that was served next to beauty-related content (see story).

Tap into mobile
The bottom of the mobile landing page features a link to Blue Moon?s mobile site where users can learn more about the company?s history, recipes and can ?Like? the company?s Facebook page.

By driving users to related content, Blue Moon can take the mobile ad a step further to create a longer-lasting relationship with consumers.

Additionally, social media and mobile are increasingly becoming tied closer together and giving users a way to instantly follow their favorite brands is a smart move for any marketer looking to build a strong social media presence via mobile.

?Context and ad placement make ads richer, more relevant and more useful,? Mr. Gerber said.

?The difference will depend on whether a product is available everywhere or only at a specific location. While products may be available online to anyone with internet access, a product or service may not be relevant to all geographical segments of the population,? he said.

?Many think the ?where? challenge of mobile is leading customers to physical places, but on a day-to-day basis, consumers know where they?re going. The ?where? challenge is location relevancy in a mobile society."

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York