Sephora’s promotion lasts 15 days and encourages consumers to visit the company’s Web site for a chance to win daily prizes. Sephora is promoting the initiative through mobile ads that are running within the TV Guide iPhone app, as well as via its Facebook page.

“At Sephora, we are so excited about the launch of our new site that we wanted to shout it from the mountaintops,” said Bridget Dolan, vice president of interactive media at Sephora, San Francisco.

“Most importantly, we had to break through to get women to try the new site,” she said.

“Creating the 15 Days of Beauty Thrills with once-in-a-lifetime prizes and experiences from our top brands helps to drive women to our new site to see what all of the excitement is about and experience it firsthand.”

Digital sweep
The Sephora mobile ads read “Free gifts, trips + more” and encourage users to tap to learn more about the promotion.

The ads then direct users to a landing page with a video that explains how the 15 Days of Beauty Thrills campaign works.

Along the bottom of the landing page, users have the option of entering to win prizes by visiting Sephora.com, viewing the company’s Facebook page or downloading the mobile app.

Mobile video is a naturally immersive medium, helping stick consumers to an ad for a longer period of time.

More importantly though, the mobile ad gives consumers multiple ways to interact with the brand, which involves being able to enter the promotion to win prizes on the spot.

Examples of prizes include trips, makeovers and products.

Additionally, Sephora is offering free daily products – either sample-sized or full-sized – to consumers who shop during the 15 days of the promotion. Giving users a free product is a great incentive to get users to shop.

Mobile makeup
Sephora relaunched its mobile site, Web site and apps in April and also rolled out in-store iPad kiosks.

The company’s new digital tools are aimed at making the shopping experience more personal and are highly integrated with social media to help users discover new products and content (see story).

Sephora’s latest marketing push is not only a great way for the company to spread the word about its new digital tools but also gives users an incentive to shop with the sweepstakes portion.

“We wanted to build a better way to shop for beauty on the go, and as evidenced by the increasing number of shoppers standing in our stores with mobile devices open to Sephora, it is clear we have hit a chord,” Ms. Dolan said.

“We will continue to focus on building a frictionless buying experience and leveraging the powerful information source we have built on Sephora.com,” she said.

“We will continually innovate on mobile platforms and build the ultimate bridge between online and offline shopping experience.”

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