• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, February 4, 2011

If you think about it, Sears was always a pioneer in mobile media, long before the smartphone, the iPad, or whatever comes next. That's what Miles Kirkpatrick, manager of online & emerging media at Sears Holding Corp., just reminded Mobile Insider Summit attendees.

Of course, the medium Sears first pioneered mobile marketing with was print-based: the catalogue. But even back then, the retail marketer understood the power of apps as a concept, and branded the 1933 version of its catalogue with an app-like nomenclature that would make Apple's Steve Jobs green with envy. They called it the Wish Book. Come to think of it, maybe Jobs was actually inspired by Sears. I mean, think about it? The MacBook? Isn't that fundamentally a "wish book?" And don't even get me started on the iPad. Note to Sears' management: If you want to see your stock price spike, just mash-up the name of your Wish Book into a compound word, a la WishBook, and put it on a tablet computer.

Actually, based on what Sears' Kirkpatrick is saying, they've pretty much already done the latter part of that strategy, creating an iPad application for the Wish Book during the 2010 holiday season.

"We gave users a really interactive experience with the iPad," is saying during the "Closing The Deal" panel at the Mobile Insider Summit. But honestly, wasn't the original Wish Book a pretty interactive experience. Heck, it was a digital interactive experience even before "digital media." You know, you interacted with it by turning the pages, and you used two "digits" - your thumb and your forefinger - to do it.

But I digress.

The most interesting part of Sears' 2010 mobile strategy, Kirkpatrick says, wasn't the iPad app itself, but the media strategy it used to drive traffic to it. Not surprisingly, Kirkpatrick says Sears did it via an Apple iAd, and was one of the first retailers to use the new mobile ad format.

Kirkpatrick didn't reveal precise results of the campaign, but shared a personal anecdote about how Sears' management reacted to the surprisingly strong results.

"One of them jumped up and gave me a high five," Kirkpatrick recalls, quoting his colleague as saying, "I'm excited about the results we're getting."

Speaking for himself, Kirkpatrick says, "It's really an exciting time to be involved in this type of advertising."

By the way, you can actually order an iPad via the Wish Book, if you want.