Ace Hardware Kick-Starts Home Maintenance with Mobile Posse

Ace Hardware is promoting popular home maintenance products to mobile consumers through the most valuable real estate on the mobile phone: the idle screen. A national campaign launched around Ace's Memorial Day Sale invited consumers to visit their local Ace Hardware to take advantage of great deals. The campaign was executed by Horizon Media and generated an average CTR of 18%. In addition, consumers that viewed the campaign were nearly 30% more likely to visit an Ace Hardware retail store. Mobile Posse's innovative mobile idle screen advertising platform powered the campaign.

The Memorial Day campaign, consisting of two ads and a seven-day sponsorship of weather forecasts, delivered strong overall results. Ace Hardware ads generated an average CTR of 18%, while the weather sponsorship generated an average CTR of 17%. Nearly 65% of Mobile Posse customers viewed at least one component of the Ace Hardware campaign during the promotion. "Being able to target consumers checking weather on their mobile device over the Memorial Day weekend is a place that Ace needed to be," proclaimed Gregory Trani, eCRM account manager of Horizon Media. "Ace continues to see high relevancy between weather and home maintenance."

"We are thrilled to welcome Ace Hardware as an advertiser and content sponsor across our idle screen advertising network," said Jon Jackson, CEO of Mobile Posse. "Mobile Posse's popular daily weather alerts provide an optimal environment for showcasing the Ace brand. It's a natural fit." Ads promoted featured seasonal products including RoundUp Weed & Grass Killer and Adirondack-style chairs. Ace Hardware also promoted Ace Royal Paint through its sponsorship of daily weather information.

The Mobile Posse solution also allows advertisers to conduct short form surveys through the mobile idle screen. In follow-up to the Ace campaign, users were asked whether they had visited an Ace Hardware store within the past seven-to-ten days. Users that viewed the campaign were 29% more likely to have visited an Ace Hardware retail store than users that did not view the campaign. These results demonstrate that mobile idle screen ads and sponsorships can help to drive traffic to retail locations.

"The Memorial Day holiday weekend is a perfect opportunity to make a dent in the home maintenance to-do list.  Everyone has to-do lists for taking care of their homes, including starting or finishing a painting project, especially if extended family is coming to visit," said Andrew Vitellaro, Sr. Creative Specialist at Ace Hardware. "Mobile Posse made it easy for us to reach mobile consumers with our message on the right day, at the right time. As a result, Ace Hardware was able to launch a highly effective mobile campaign with minimal resources."

Consumers opt-in to Mobile Posse's free application to receive informative and fun content, along with valued offers from local and national retailers. Full-screen offers are targeted and interactive, and can feature rich graphics and customer surveys. A turnkey mobile advertising solution, Mobile Posse allows leading-edge mobile marketing programs to be quickly and economically launched without SMS opt-in lists or development resources. Mobile Posse powers idle screen content and advertising solutions for leading national and regional wireless carriers today.

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About Ace Hardware

Throughout its 85-year history, Ace Hardware has been known as the helpful hardware store by both customers and communities. With 4,600 hardware, home center and building materials stores that generate annual retail sales of more than $12 billion, Ace is the largest retailer-owned hardware cooperative in the industry. Headquartered in Oak Brook, Ill., Ace currently operates 14 distribution centers in the U.S. and one in Shanghai, China, and its retailers' stores are located in all 50 states and more than 60 countries. For more information on Ace, visit www.acehardware.com.

About Mobile Posse

Mobile Posse, Inc. is the leading provider of next-generation mobile marketing solutions for the idle screen. Using proprietary patent-pending technology, Mobile Posse enables advertisers, content providers, and wireless carriers to proactively reach consumers through the prime real-estate on the mobile phone. The first company to commercially launch graphically-rich and interactive idle screen programming in North America, Mobile Posse delivers a superior experience for consumers and industry-leading results for marketers. Mobile Posse powers idle screen content and advertising delivery solutions for leading national and regional wireless carriers. Founded in 2005 and privately held, Mobile Posse is headquartered in McLean, VA. For more information about Mobile Posse, please visit www.mobileposse.com.