Hair styling appliance manufacturer Conair recently drove 800,000 completed mobile video views over seven weeks by offering users a way to earn digital rewards in exchange for engaging with the brand's content.

Conair was looking to extend its brand marketing into mobile and worked with Tapjoy to bring the brand?s message to applications across its network. Users could click on an ad and choose to watch a video about how to use Conair's Spin Air Brush to earn credits that could be used in the app

?The primary brand objective was to increase awareness and ultimately purchase consideration for their product,? said Peter Dille, chief marketing officer at Tapjoy, San Francisco. ?They?ve been using other media and wanted to ratchet up mobile.

Our model works particularly well because users are opting in and picking which brands to interact with,? he said. ?Right off the bat, that is going to lead to higher awareness levels.

Television has been historically the go-to medium for driving brand awareness and that will probably stay the same for a couple of years. But, obviously mobile has such a big user base and can provide such reach, it is great to see that we can provide user awareness on a brand campaign like that.?

Value exchange
Users could earn two credits for watching the video and as well as additional credits ? one for liking the brand on Facebook and one for following it on Twitter.

Overall, 800,000 completed video views were driven during the campaign, with the most receptive respondents being frequent category users and high-income earners.

Competitive product users were also more likely to purchase Conair products based on viewing the ads.

?Consumers these days are savvy about how marketing works,? Mr. Dille said. ?They know that they are being sold to and they don?t mind that if they get something for their efforts.

?They are playing their game, see the offer, are interested in Conair?s product, they watch it and now they get rewarded with points in the game they are playing and all of a sudden they feel a whole lot better about the brand that brought them the experience that they like so much,? he said.

In control
The mobile campaign was compared against a control group seeing the same creative on TV, with mobile producing a 5.7 percent higher ad awareness, 7.6 percent higher brand favorability and 9.9 percent higher purchase intent.

Compared to the overall mobile audience, brand awareness was up 19.1 percent, brand favorability 5.6 percent and purchase intent 7.3 percent.

Results from campaigns such as Conair?s suggest that consumers understand the virtual economy and prefer to connect with brands via ad sponsored in-app rewards, putting them in control of their mobile advertising experience.

This type of marketing can also be more efficient for brands, with Conair only paying for completed video views.

?The mere fact that someone can see a series of ads and pick which one they want to interact with is really in stark contrast to their advertising experiences across other media,? Mr. Dille said. ?It is very different from TV because you get what you get and you are probably not paying attention or you are fast forwarding.

?Here you are actually opting into the ad because you are interested in seeing it,? he said.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York