The Cell Sell

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Maria Mandel | photograph by Asger Carlsen

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Mike Baker | by Joshua Dalsimer

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The State of Mobile Advertising

Stacy Doren, 35, oversaw the Signature brand's venture into mobile advertising when it became one of the first companies to sign on to Virgin Mobile's Sugar Mama, an ad-supported cell-phone service in which consumers earn free minutes by watching advertisements.

"Last year, Virgin approached us to sponsor some content on its Sugar Mama service. Instead of just pushing ads at users, we had the chance to draw people in with a 'pull model.' Consumers had to answer questions after watching an ad, so we knew they were engaging with our brand. And I loved that we could reward them with free phone minutes. Ultimately, we decided this type of mobile advertising was a better fit for a younger target market than ours. Signature is more for 'gatekeeper moms,' who share a phone with their kids to keep them occupied in the car. Mobile advertising will eventually catch up to those moms, but not yet."