Clinique is running mobile banner ads that encourage users to shop the company’s line of chubby stick lip balms. The mobile ads are running in Glamour’s mobile site.

“Free shipping on mcommerce has the same effect as free shipping on ecommerce as long as the mobile commerce site allows the product to be purchased easily from the mobile,” said Marci Troutman, CEO of SiteMinis, Atlanta.

Ms. Troutman is not affiliated with Clinique. She commented based on her expertise on the subject.

Clinique did not respond to press inquiries.

Mobile beauty
The copy for the mobile ads read, “Mix & Match Chubby Stick shades now.”

When users tap on the ad, they are redirected to Clinique’s mobile site. Consumers are then taken to the exact product page where they can shop the products.

Driving users to a specific landing page is an especially smart move for campaigns that promote one specific product.

From there, users can browse the different shades of the product, add items to their shopping basket and check-out.

Additionally, Clinique offers free shipping on orders more than $50. Offering free shipping gives users an incentive to shop online and leads to increased basket size with a minimum spend amount.

An initiative such as this from Clinique is a great way for the company to bolster online sales for a seasonal promotion. Additionally, by running a campaign for one specific product, users might be more inclined to interact with an ad unit when it is more tailored.

In this case, the placement of the Clinique is an example of how mobile ads need to match the content that they are running in.

Glamour’s core demographic of young, trendy women is the same target that Clinique is aiming to reach.

Mobile call-to-action
This is not Clinique’s first foray into mobile.

For example, Clinique UK recently tapped augmented reality to bring static print advertisements in Britain to life.

The campaign ran in March and let users download the Blippar app to interact with ads (see story).

Additionally, in 2010 Clinique used a call-to-action on print ads to encourage users to opt-into an SMS program (see story).

“Mobile makes sense for any brand given that a huge percentage of consumers globally are on mobile and will be viewing all brands even beauty brands on a mobile,” Ms. Troutman said.

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