Lamps Plus launches first mobile video campaign on Amazon

Brief:

Lamps Plus, a lighting retailer with an online store and more than three dozen locations in the western United States, plans to launch its first Amazon mobile video ad campaign on July 17 as the e-commerce company hosts its annual Prime Day shopping event, per a statement shared with Mobile Marketer.
The campaign will promote the retailer’s 360 Lighting private label brand with videos that show a loft apartment designed with Lamps Plus table lamps. The company created the video ads in-house, filming them in the Lamps Plus headquarters studio in Los Angeles.
More than 800 Lamps Plus products will be available at a sale price next week on Amazon. For 15 years, Lamps Plus has been part of Amazon Marketplace, the e-commerce platform owned and operated by Amazon that lets third-party sellers sell new or used products alongside Amazon's regular offerings.

Insight:

Lamps Plus is launching a mobile video campaign on Amazon as the e-commerce company continues to build out the kinds of ads it offers to marketers. Mobile video ads are thought to be more engaging than traditional banner ads. Running design-oriented content on Prime Day that is intended to reach mobile users could help Lamps Plus inspire smartphone shoppers during a promotion that is expected to drive $3.4 billion in sales, up 40% from last year, with much of the activity coming from mobile users.

While exact numbers have not been released about Amazon's quickly growing ad business, the company's CFO Brian Olsavsky has called it a "multi-billion dollar" program. Amazon recommends that marketers consider buying search and display ads to complement each other in ad campaigns. Search ads help to boost sales to customers who have strong intentions to buy a product, while display ads help to create awareness and drive that intent. Amazon recommends that marketers bid on branded keywords and category keywords. The greater brand exposure from display ads makes it more likely that customers will search for branded keywords, per Amazon’s advertising blog.

Lamps Plus is among the retailers that seek to piggyback on Amazon’s Prime Day, a summer version of Cyber Monday that this year will offer more than a million deals. Those discounts are only available to subscribers of Amazon Prime, which costs $12.99 a month or $119 a year and offers faster shipping options at no extra cost, in addition to music and video streaming. Retailers like Lamps Plus have more time to sell their wares this year, as Amazon is adding six hours to its Prime Day event, which starts at 3 p.m. EDT on July 16 and ends the next day at midnight.

Amazon’s major competitors also are lining up deals for Prime Day, knowing that online shoppers are likely to compare prices across websites in search of the best deal. Kohl’s, Best Buy, eBay, Target, Walmart, Macy’s and Sears are among the companies that are preparing to cash in on the publicity that Prime Day generates. Prime Day is expected to see sales growth of more than 40% to $3.4 billion this year from $2.4 billion last year as the company expands to more countries, per Women's Wear Daily.