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Coca-Cola?s smartwater finds mobile advertising inspiration in top-down swipe

The mobile advertising strategy for Coca-Cola?s smartwater brand is looking up as it leverages the Huffington Post news feed to encourage viewers to swipe from the top down on their screens and find inspiration in the clouds. 

The mobile ad is part of smartwater?s ?up, up, up? campaign, which launched over the summer and is built around the idea of inspiration, which for the vapor-distilled water comes from the clouds. By using the ability to swipe from the top of the screen down and scroll through different images, smartwater is reinforcing through motion a central idea of the campaign ? to look up for a change in perspective. 

?When building a mobile experience it is advisable to make the primary swiping vertical instead of horizontal, as that is easier on the fingers to navigate,? said Shuli Lowy, marketing director for mobile at Ping Mobile. ?While most marketers utilize a swipe down option, encouraging consumers to swipe up works just as well. 

?Smartwater?s tie in of an upward swiping motion which alludes to drawing inspiration from the clouds is a clever, simple example of how the tactile variability within mobile can drive home the theme of a campaign,? she said. ?It is a relatively new consideration for marketers which few so far have taken advantage of. 

?The campaign?s imagery as well as its simple, bold wording is sure to resonate with well with viewers. Mobile screens are small and it is therefore important to provide creatives which are simple and bold in their text. Less is more.?

Finding inspiration
The smartwater campaign?s imagery focuses on clear, blue skies and fluffy white clouds. 

The ad in the Huffington Post news feed starts with off-center image clouds and a bottle of smartwater along with a button encouraging viewers to tap to learn more. Doing so takes users to the mobile-optimized smartwater Web site, drinksmartwater.com. 

Once on the site, viewers learn that the vapor-based purification system used for smartwater was inspired by looking to the sky. The copy ask viewers, ?What will you see when you look up up up?? 


After swiping through several more screens focused on how vapor forms clouds, viewers are encouraged to send ?airmail? to friend and provide some cloud inspiration. 

?While the call to action encouraging respondents to send others an airmail with an inspirational-lift ties in nicely to the campaign, it is not a particularly compelling call to action,? Ms. Lowy said. 

?The format through which the messages are shared also doesn?t lead to a great experience,? she said. ?When sharing it through Facebook, the link turns into a thumbnail which consumers can click out to discover the message. 

?This ads an extra step to the process which leads to drop offs. The dramatic production to see a two-five word line also seems anti-climactic.?

The full Web site experience is only available on desktop or tablets, with the main difference being the addition of a video that simulates flying through the clouds while relaxing music plays. 


Missing the mark
The use of top down scrolling in this ad is interesting because, despite there being a number of different ways that users can interact with mobile screens, marketers still typically focus on the primary two ? swiping up from the bottom and swiping from right to left. 

Despite the use of top-down swiping, overall the campaign needs more fulfilling mobile experience for a successful mobile engagement.  

?While the ad creative was built well, smartwater could have created a more fulfilling experience by including more substantive takeaways and enabling them to be shared and accessed more seamlessly,? Ms. Lowy said.  

Final Take
Chantal Tode is senior editor on Mobile Marketer, New York