Tide's continued attention to how and where it engages consumers through mobile combined with quality content will steer the Procter & Gamble brand well in the years to come, setting the tone for the rest of the consumer packaged goods vertical, Mobile Marketer?s analysis shows.

The laundry detergent line, which regularly incorporates mobile into its multichannel efforts, embodies its parent?s endeavor to take mobile seriously with specific, tailored campaigns for each of its brands. Notwithstanding its lack of a mobile application, Tide is a model for the notion that brands that plan an omni-channel strategy ultimately can increase their media spend.

?P&G has been an evangelist of mobile, moving budget to the small screen to drive marketing effectiveness, keenly aware how the point-of-decision small-screen affects the media mix,? said Gary Schwartz, CEO of Impact Mobile, Toronto. ?They have invested considerable time and effort understanding the new mobile path-to-purchase.

?Tide, particularly, has been one of P&G's engagement brands, running direct messaging campaigns such as Text for Tips,? he said. ?But Tide has also become the poster child for Amazon Dash and features proudly in the Samsung Wallet. 

?Ultimately, brands that are able to plan an omni-channel strategy are the brands that can amplify their media spend."

Tide knows that the closer it can be to the consumer experience in the pantry at the shelf, the more successful it will be at the point of sale.

Elements of that view can be found in Tide?s 2009 launch of Stain Brain, an application for iPhone and iPod touch that consumers could use to find and share ways to remove stains at home and on the go.

The free application let consumers search for step-by-step cleaning instructions from the experts at Tide and other iPhone users to get answers before stains had a chance to set in. For those iPhone users who had a secret recipe for removing tough stains, Stain Brain let them instantly share their own tips and tricks within the application.

?We see Tide as the authority in stain removal, and we?ve had stain solutions on our Web site for some time, and we wanted to extend out of home to reach consumers,? Amanda Treevy, Tide?s digital brand manager, told Mobile Marketer at the time. "The iPhone application allowed us to do that, offering on-the-go tips at consumers? fingertips.?

Since then, Tide has made good on its plan to expand its mobile presence to other platforms, beyond the iPhone realm.

In April, Tide was one of the brands included in Amazon?s testing of its Dash push-button household item-ordering service.

By pushing the Wi-Fi enabled button that connects to a smartphone through Amazon?s mobile application, the consumer could reorder from brands such as Tide, Clorox and Huggies when supplies ran out. 

The brand also has spent the past year and a half focusing on short-form video. 

During this year?s Super Bowl, for instance, Tide leveraged the Vine mobile app to send out bits of video in real-time that incorporated other brands? TV spots during the game. So when Cheerios ran a spot about a family welcoming a new baby and a new puppy, Tide created a video tagged with Cheerios? Twitter handle warning the cereal brand about the stains from puppies.

The campaign was a good example of how brands could leverage social to gain entry into the real-time conversations happening there. In this case that conversation was around the ads running during the game, which tend to get nearly as much focus as the game itself.

The posts generated thousands of retweets and led to millions of impressions. 

The brand has also created an array of short form videos promoted across social media with the hashtag #tidekeepsies. The videos feature little projects that could be done to repurpose empty Tide bottles for decorative house pieces. Many of these videos show the project in just six seconds. 

?Short-form videos are virtually always built for mobile, where they perform best,? said Shuli Lowy, marketing director for mobile with Ping Mobile. ?Long-form videos see substantial drop-offs in mobile ? particularly after the 30-second point.? 

Tide?s mobile efforts reflect its mastery of a social media technique with which many other brands struggle ? that is, to socialize. 

?Many brands mistaken social media for a place to make PR releases,? Ms. Lowy said. ?Instead, marketers should focus on the reason consumers are accessing a social media site and create content that's in line with the consumer activity. 

?Interacting with others via social media also leads to added visibility.? 

In 2013, a Tide promotion enticed consumers to win a year of Tide HE for free by joining a text messaging campaign. Participants would receive laundry tips, stain solutions, and special offers sent directly to their mobile phones via text message. 

The Tatango-developed campaign generated thousands of new SMS subscribers, according to Tatango?s Web site.

Tide?s lack of a mobile app has sparked claims that it has cut itself off from an opportunity as smartphones proliferate.

?Some marketers may criticize the fact that Tide doesn't have a mobile app ? which many view as a right of passage to next generation mobile adoption,? Ms. Lowy said. ?Marketers need to understand that not every major brand needs to have an app. 

?An app can provide a wonderful branding experience,? she said. ?But if there's no clear and worthy value proposition then the app won't do well and there is no purpose to building it.?