Coca-cola via Bluetooth

Written on Wednesday, September 17, 2008

I just read a very interesting article about one of Coca-Cola's latest campaigns: They chose to distribute an Olympic-themed Coca-Cola commercial, in the Olympic Games in China, via Bluetooth Hotspots.

Some interesting excerpts:

Coca-Cola, an official sponsor of the 2008 Summer Games, employed various media for its Olympic marketing, including television, online and print. “This campaign is unique in that it allows us to directly reach consumers in outdoor entertainment venues,” said Michelle Yang, media director of Coca-Cola China.

Bluetooth was chosen for the campaign in part because of its popularity among Chinese consumers. “China has a 35% Bluetooth penetration,” Chao said.

In addition, Bluetooth is user-friendly. It offers a faster transfer speed than many other mobile formats, giving marketers more options to design compelling content. And downloads don’t cost the consumer a dime—or, in this instance, a jiao.

By contrast, mobile marketing campaigns asking users to visit a URL to retrieve content can be frustrating for the consumer. “People have to pay for mobile bandwidth and it can be quite expensive when glitches happen,” Chao said. “[Bluetooth] is all about instant gratification—not waiting.”

Coca-Cola did not offer incentives for consumers to download its content as part of this campaign—something Chao typically recommends. Still, the campaign generated 880,489 downloads from Aug. 1–31—downloads that were delivered directly to consumers, with their permission, in venues where the product was readily available.

Chao said Bluetooth marketing could be used for everything from direct sales promotion to branding. “The key to success with Bluetooth marketing is the venue or occasion the campaign is designed for,” he added. In venues that prompt participants to enable their Bluetooth devices, as was the case in the Olympic hotspots, Chao has seen conversion rates of up to 65%.

Success, of course, is also dependent on the rate of Bluetooth adoption in the target market. But Mike Foley, executive director of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, a trade association, said the Bluetooth brand is well known around the world.

Posted in bluetooth, bluetooth hotspots |