Summer sweepstakes are kicking into high gear and savvy marketers know to make mobile a focal point, but recent efforts suggest consumer packaged goods brands are taking a formulaic approach that could turn off more consumers than it wins over. Marketers are increasingly embracing the idea that the best mobile efforts reach consumers with entertaining snippets of content as they go about their daily activities. However, recent efforts appear to offer little of value to consumers. Nor are they unique or interesting enough to gain attention. 

An analysis of June sales by store analytics provider RetailNext served up mixed results. Although overall sales suffered a year-over-year decline in June 2015, retailers can take solace in the fact the consumers who were shopping spent more money. According to RetailNext’s Retail Performance Pulse report, June experienced a 3.3% year-over-year increase in sales per shopper, one of the strongest performances in any month of 2015 so far. However, sales declined 6.1% and store traffic decreased 9.1%. In addition, transactions fell 7.7%. Sales per shopper managed to rise due to a 0.4% increase in conversion rate and 1.9% increase in average transaction …

Location-based marketing and loyalty programs are things that our kids will probably take for granted someday. The only question is how annoying and intrusive they will be (the programs, not the kids—well, never mind). A young tech startup called Adored, based in Manchester, NH, has just raised a $2.3 million seed round to get ahead in the sector. It’s not a lot of money, but it comes from leading Boston-area investors, including Kepha Partners, Boston Seed Capital, Matrix Partners, Kayak co-founder Paul English, and Crashlytics co-founder Wayne Chang. New Hampshire’s Borealis Ventures and Dyn CEO Jeremy Hitchcock also participated in the round. Adored …

American Express seeks to bring even more convenience to mobile payments with its Amex Express Checkout system that allows its millions of members to automatically make online purchases via a platform that needs only their existing login information. Amex Express Checkout lets members with AmericanExpress.com accounts quickly make online purchases using their American Express logins, differentiating itself from Google Wallet and Master Pass, which require customers to create a new login and link up credit cards. The Amex service points to an effort to satisfy consumers’ mobile-accelerated demands for easier-to-manage processes in important financial matters.

SMS marketing pioneer Hipcricket’s acquisition by Sito Mobile for a mere fraction of the price of its purchase by Augme four years ago points to both the unpredictable speed of shifts in the ad technology field and a challenging environment for companies in the SMS space. Sito, a mobile engagement platform provider, said it acquired the mobile advertising business from Hipcricket for $3.7 million, including $2.4 million in stock and $1.3 million in cash. In 2011, Augme bought the company for $44.5 million.

While Uber’s controversial battle with politicians and car service companies may give some brands pause about teaming up with the ride-sharing application, the key issue is whether its service satisfies target audiences. Marriott International, Capital One and Samsung are just a few of the brands in a range of industries that have partnered with Uber, even as it generates controversy with its leveraging of mobile to transform local transport services worldwide, from taxis to carpools to fast-food delivery. Setbacks for the company after lawmakers in several countries took steps to ban it have raised questions about the degree to which Uber …

Unilever’s Axe is leveraging an in-store partnership with Walmart designed to attract the brand's young male audience with relevant music downloads on mobile as a reward for purchasing products. Consumers may download rewards platform Snipp to partake in the campaign, which runs through December 31. The free download promotion will likely appeal to Axe’s main demographic of younger males, proving that offering attractive, instantaneous rewards is a strategy that more consumer packaged goods brands should consider implementing.

Taco Bell is partnering with courier service DoorDash to deliver the Mexican fast food chain’s products to customers in California and Dallas who place orders via the DoorDash mobile application or site. The team-up with the two-year-old business points to Taco Bell’s growing initiative of cultivating a nationwide delivery service, where consumers can order meals via their smartphones and have them brought to their homes or offices. As major players in the food and beverage industry, such as Starbucks, ramp up rollouts of mobile delivery, other marketers are playing catch-up by testing smaller markets initially.

Top pizza chain Domino's Pizza recently partnered with the Indian Railways to serve pizzas to passengers on their train seat. It also launched a mobile application for taking orders in its constant bid to reach out to all segments of consumers. ET caught up with Ajay Kaul, CEO of Jubilant FoodWorks that operates Domino's Pizza stores in the country, to talk about the company's new initiatives as well as the opportunities and challenges they bring along.   

PayPal has announced that it has successfully acquired Xoom Corp., a digital money transfer service provider. This may represent yet another step toward PayPal’s plans to become a more prominent entity in the mobile commerce space. Xoom is currently considered one of the world’s leading remittance companies. The company allows consumers to use their mobile devices to send funds, and pay bills, using their mobile devices, making the process more convenient. PayPal believes that expanding into the international money transfer and remittance space will open up new opportunities in the coming years. PayPal has become one of the most influential organizations in …