Victoria’s Secret has added a gaming feature into its application for the Pink Nation loyalty program to promote sales for back-to-school wear among college students, leveraging the pull that mobile entertainment can have on consumers.

The apparel brand is attempting to attract more school-bound consumers to use its app through a college football-based game. The game coincides with the retailer’s college-wear campaign and the brand is hoping that drawing in users through the game will ramp up mobile sales.

“Victoria’s Secret is hitting their demo where they are, on their device,” said Tony Vlismas
head of market strategy at Polar. “It is smart to create an app but it is also difficult to cut through the noise.

“They will need to compliment this campaign with an incentive, or in-store merchandizing,” he said. “The latter will help with awareness, but if they are looking for new users to drive back into their stores, they will need awareness campaigns that include a viral piece to encourage discovery.”

Mobile winning game
While the game is not overly complicated or involved, its simplicity is just the type of game that can generate addiction-like usage via mobile. The more users that are launching the app and game, the more they are exposed to Pink’s back-to-campus apparel and are more likely to purchase.

While the game is not overly complicated or involved, its simplicity is just the type of game that can generate addiction-like usage via mobile. The more users that are launching the app and game, the more they are exposed to Pink’s back-to-campus apparel and are more likely to purchase.

To launch the game, users access the app’s homepage. Back-to-campus apparel is featured along with the button to start the game when opening the app.

Players earn their way through the various levels of the game by tossing virtual footballs to their respective goal sides, while completing various goals such as keeping a banner afloat for three seconds and throwing a yellow flag to the top of the page.

The mobile app entices users with various unique content, and the game coincides with this strategy. The brand is offering a deal for new members of the app through a digital scratch off.

The addition of the game comes just in time to raise awareness for its Black Friday type of sale for back-to-school wear. On August 7 the brand is giving fans serious deals on its back-to-campus apparel, and encouraging users to use its texting service to get eve more deals.

Pink Nation also encourages users to edit pictures through its app with unique branded filters and stickers to be shared on social media.

Pink is a collection from Victoria’s Secret that focuses on the younger demographics, girls aged 15 to 22. The brand has a large following in college-aged students and has developed a large collection catering to these shoppers.

The brand’s back-to-campus campaigns are an important part of its promotional calendar. Victoria’s Secret is  highly aware of the attraction that mobile offers to this demographic, especially mobile gaming.

Victoria’s Secret is mobile
The lingerie brand is no novice to unique mobile campaigns.

For instance, Victoria’s Secret ran ads for its Pink Date bra within Cosmopolitan magazine’s content on the new Snapchat Discover platform, reflecting its potential to help brands narrow in on a targeted group of consumers (see more).

Also, the brand added a new component to its digitally enabled catalogs that entices consumers to take a quiz to see their ideal bra size, type and fit, boosting its mobile merchandising capabilities in time for Valentine’s Day (see more).

“One key piece is what to do to keep a user engaged,” Mr. Vilsamas said. “We live in a world with constant notifications, so a simple ping to your phone or watch is not enough these days.

“They will need to get their user engaged and keep that attention,” he said. “Games and other apps get installed, played with, then forgotten.

“Something needs to be done to stay top of mind. Give them a reason to launch the app, something exclusive. Starbucks gives you coupons, Angry Birds gives you extra lives, everyone has something. Particularly for retail, it should keep the brand top-of-mind.”

Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Commerce Daily