Mobile advertising, or any advertising, for that matter, changes every season and you can see how the mobile ad trends shift according to the time of year.  We’ve recently gone from summer into the ‘Back-to-school’ season, and now we’re transitioning into the holidays, starting Halloween then Thanksgiving, Christmas and then New Years.

According to Millennial Media’s August S.M.A.R.T. report, “Campaigns with a goal of promoting a product launch grew 75% month-over-month in August. Entertainment advertisers had this campaign goal when promoting the DVD releases of their summer blockbusters, and telecom advertisers promoted new phones/tablets during the Back to School shopping season.”

Mobile ads are now location specific, target audience specific and are repetitive.  Retailers are making use of in-banner video technology to generate thousands of localized ads with multiple messages based on geography like Zip code or designated marketing area (DMA), on the fly.  These ads can include local store information such as maps, directions, inventory, and links to store-specific web pages.  Also, mobile ads are now more interactive as one can share them to your friends and acquaintances in your social network.  And by targeting specific audiences, retailers are sure to capture a certain demographic.

The importance of mobile ads adapting to seasonal change is to keep things relevant.  As we near the holiday season, product-specific campaigns will center around new launches. So as the year approaches its final quarter, Millennial notes the rise in alcohol ads at 42% as well as cosmetics and hygiene at 26%.  These are two categories that are picking up during this seasonal transition, leveraging a mobile ad system that contextualizes around location, among other things.

As the holiday rush approaches, a quarter of all campaigns on Millennial’s network featured a store locator—a growth of 14% month-over-month.  When targeting local consumers, using a store locator can be a great way to help drive them into a store, plus it eliminates the hassle of running around town like a headless chicken.  Consumers are more likely to have a great in-store experience if they easily found the store, and consumers are more likely to spend more time, which means more money, it the shopping process is simplified.