As we kick off the new year—and new decade, woah—we decided to reminisce at some of 2019’s most interesting, innovative and inspirational mobile marketing campaigns. As marketers we always want to bring something new to our customers—we strive to be creative, thought-provoking, and of course, drive results for our organizations. What better way to get motivation than to look at examples from some of the best?

2019 saw a growing adoption of augmented reality, heavy social media influence, unique and innovative partnerships, and some daring decisions.

Live Nation Brings AR to Concerts & Festivals

In 2019 Live Nation launched a series of augmented reality features to their dedicated festival mobile apps, bringing new dimensions to the concert and festival experience both for attendees and those at home alike.

Festival goers can use the Fast Lens feature to point their smartphone at any stage and pull up the artist lineup associated with it, ensuring they never miss their favorite artists. Live Nation also dropped the Photo Opp feature, which helps attendees find branded photo backdrops within the festival, then snap pictures in front of them to activate exclusive AR filters and create unique and insta-worthy photos. Bringing interactive features together with social media opportunities is a great way to raise engagement, enhance the customer experience, and drive buzz far and wide.

The new AR mobile features also give those at home exclusive access to concerts, festivals, and even a glimpse backstage. With the AR Livestream and AR VIP Access features, users can livestream festival acts from the app and even experience exclusive vantage points like backstage, side stage and even the soundboard, bringing the concert to anyone, anywhere, regardless of whether they can attend or not. By extending access to the AR features to those who can’t attend help elevates Live Nation beyond a ticket and venue operator to a complete event experience brand.

TD Ameritrade and ESPN Up the Ante on Fantasy Football Analytics

For the 2019 football season, TD Ameritrade partnered with ESPN to bring advanced analytics to ESPN’s Fantasy Football app users, giving fantasy fanatics a deeper view into the stats and trends of their favorite NFL teams and players.

It was also a perfect match for ESPN’s Fantasy Football audience. According to Nielsen, those who play fantasy sports are 47% more likely than the general population to have at least a master’s degree, and are 67% more likely to have a household income of at least $250,000. And fantasy fans love stats, they like to analyze player and game data in the same way one would with their stocks and investments. So this partnership was a natural fit, enhancing ESPN’s Fantasy Football app experience, while exposing TD Ameritrade to a well-fitting audience to expand their mindshare and customer base.

Macy’s Shoppable Commercials

Macy’s won at back-to-school in 2019 with their “All Brand New” campaign, which featured their first-ever shoppable commercials via Snapchat. The commercials aired during Snapchat’s original series, “The Dead Girls Detective Agency”, targeting their Gen Z viewers with the ability to swipe up to shop the back-to-school outfits shown in the commercials.

As a sponsor of “The Dead Girls Detective Agency” series, this was a great opportunity for Macy’s to engage users directly via the Snapchat app, and generate sales in the process. According to Deloitte, 60% of back-to-school shoppers will be making purchases on their mobile device, so by merging mobile and social together, Macy’s was able to craft a unique, engaging shopping experience for their customers. And since Gen Z is typically less receptive to traditional advertising efforts as compared to older generations, incorporating this campaign into Snapchat is an innovative way to still get in front of the right audience, but in a more interactive and social way.

Dominos Points for Pies

Talk about bold. Domino’s “Points for Pies” campaign went where no other pizza restaurant has gone before. With their campaign, launched right before Superbowl LIII, Dominos offered rewards points for all pizzas that customers eat, including those that aren’t from Dominos.

Customers simply had to use the Domino’s app, sign up for the Piece of the Pie Rewards program, and then take a photo of any pizza to receive 10 points. Once they hit 60, they were rewarded with a free, medium 2-topping pizza.

That meant customers could upload photos of frozen pizzas, homemade pizzas, fancy pizzas, Pizza Hut pizzas and any others a customer could get their hands on. The only catch, customers could only scan in one pizza per week, and the promotion ran for 12 weeks.

The campaign drew huge buzz and was an incredible success, showing us that Domino’s will stop at nothing to prove their dedication to pizza. The campaign brought excitement and visibility around both Domino’s and their existing rewards program, bringing in new users while re-engaging with existing users. The campaign also brought in a strong social aspect, enabling users to share their pictures via social media, spreading the word further and letting customers own and share their love of pizza.