Someone please call REI. Whoever is running their mobile marketing is asleep.
We’re coming up on ski season and skiers and boarders alike will be keeping a close eye on snow conditions. REI is presumably here to help. In the new issue of SKI Magazine REI placed a full-page ad dedicated largely to their equipment servicing offer but for those with iPhone and Android-based phones they have a bonus: a free snow report app!
Using a nice, short URL, REI.com/apps, they successfully avoided the inherent challenges with QR codes (i.e., some people don’t know what they are and don’t have a reader installed on their phone). This tidy little URL can easily be typed into a phone browser, which is what I did. Soon the now-familiar REI 
mobile site began loading. After a few seconds the site was loaded and – no app anywhere. I wasn’t even on a page that was supposed to have apps. I was just staring at the front door of their mobile site.
Fail.
Looking around, I didn’t even see where the apps might be. Under ‘SHOP’? Under ‘Find Out’? Checking….. nope. I don’t see it anywhere. On an off-chance I thought I’d try the URL from my computer and there – on the fixed Internet – is a page offering an iPhone app. Yay! But what about Android? Oop. In pretty orange letters the page says, “Android Version Coming Soon!” I could have swore the ad said for iPhone and Android. Wait! It did. Fail again. Sigh.
Credit: @daniel_phelps
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What might have saved this campaign?
At some risk of stating the obvious REI could have simply created a page on their mobile site where the app(s) could be downloaded. When their web servers detected that a mobile device was accessing REI.com/apps the user could be taken directly to that page. As far as promoting an app for Android when none exists? This bad idea could be mitigated by offering to alert me via SMS when the app is ready. Then send me the link to the download page.
There must be a breakdown in communication with their Catalogue Marketing Manager or Marketing Proofreader and their Digital Marketing Manager. Two huge mistakes in a matter of a couple weeks? This is just painful.
I am under the impression that their marketing department is quite small. It is inexcusable that their marketing people are not talking to each other. You know, I told them to hire me, and they turned me down. Twice. Quadruple fail.