Brands such as Coca-Cola, Mars Inc.?s Snickers, Home Depot, Ford Motor Co., the Discovery Channel and Capital One are driving brand engagement and raising product awareness with advertising across CBS?s mobile sites and applications.

Coca-Cola Zero, Home Depot, Capital One and the Discovery Channel?s ?Storm Chasers? have all run ad campaigns with the CBS Sports application, while Snickers and Ford are cosponsors of the CBS Sports Pro Football application. The majority of these are cross-platform buys that include online and television as well as mobile.

?One of the tent poles of our business is to make it easy to buy across CBS Interactive?s inventory,? said Rob Gelick, Los Angeles-based general manager of CBS Mobile and senior vice president at CBS Interactive. ?Advertisers can now buy on air, online and mobile as a bundled package that extends reach and allows brands to follow an audience as it migrates from one platform to another.

?For example, Ford and Snickers are both running campaigns in our online sites, and are also both lead sponsors within our Pro Football mobile apps,? he said. ?On the mobile front, we?re able to create unique, rich-media experiences like expandable ads and video units that we see as excellent points of connection to our audiences.

?We have a huge amount of products getting released in the mobile space, especially in the sports category, we?re running a lot more rich-media ad units and we?re seeing a lot more brand partners leveraging our mobile inventory.?

July Systems developed and manages CBS's applications.

Mobile advertising boom
Coca-Cola Zero, Home Depot and Capital One are all advertisers within the general CBS Sports iPhone application.

Coca-Cola is sponsoring the SEC Live Game of the Week feature within the application, which features live streaming video, including Coke Zero mobile video ads.

The SEC portal within the application features the brand?s logo and carries the message ?Presented by Coca-Cola Zero? just above the Watch Live icon.

In addition, in-application banners feature the Coca-Cola Zero logo on a football and the tagline: ?Real Coca-Cola taste and zero calories: It?s possible.?

Home Depot?s banner feature?s the retailer?s logo and the call-to-action ?Get the winning plays for a point project.?

Snickers and Ford are cosponsors of the CBS Sports Pro Football iPhone application, and they are also both running banners in the general CBS Sports iPhone application.

Snickers is running banner ads featuring its logo and the following call-to-action:

?Go Nuts with Snickers. Go to Super Bowl XLV. It?s the tastiest way for a big fan to get to The Big Game. Enter for a chance to win.?

Ford is promoting its 2011 Edge vehicle and its Ford Sync product.

Ford?s ad panel features the following taglines:

?Experience the new 2011 Edge with available MyFord Touch. Quite possibly the world?s smartest crossover. Learn more.?

Once tapped upon, a full-page microsite opens within the CBS Sports application.

In addition to the mobile ads, Ford is running ads in CBS?s online sites, including CBSSports.com, and it is one of the lead advertisers on the Pro Football application for iPad as well.

The ad units CBS has developed can take over the screen, as well as let users watch video or click out to a third-party site.

Discovery Communications Inc.?s Discovery Channel is running rich-media creative promoting its ?Storm Chasers? television show across various publishers? iPhone applications, including CBS Sports and TV.com (see story).

?We want to make it easy to buy across CBS Interactive, both online and mobile inventory, via packages so that brands can follow that digital audience no matter where they are,? Mr. Gelick said. ?A year ago that was the Holy Grail, and it?s great and refreshing to discuss it with all of these brands and find that to be the norm these days.

?We try to make the campaigns and the brands as naturally integrated into the products as possible, and they become entertainment in themselves,? he said. ?It?s surprising how fast the ad units have evolved, the rollout of units that are available and the way we can customize them across various apps.

?Sometimes the ads are as entertaining as the content itself.?

Final Take