MillerCoors is letting baseball fans at U.S. Cellular Field pay tribute to their favorite stars in the stands, as well as on the field, during Chicago White Sox home games this month via mobile.

As part of Beer Vendor Appreciation Month, a new program designed and launched by GMR Mobile on behalf of the beer baron, fans at 12 home games will be able to honor their favorite stadium suds vendor by text-messaging votes throughout the course of the game. Winners will be selected on a game-by-game basis, with the vendor garnering the most votes during July being honored in early August as Beer Vendor of the Year.

"The strategy is to honor the hard workers who deliver the great taste of Miller Lite in a fun, unique way utilizing consumer engagement technology through our contractual assets in-stadium," said Ryan Peck, senior account manager for GMR Marketing, Chicago. "This initiative ties into the ATL Miller Lite strategy of ?Great Calls,' as each beer vendor has their own unique ?call.'

"The target demographic is White Sox fans 21-plus-years-old who enjoy a great tasting light beer at a baseball game," he said.

MillerCoors is a joint venture between SABMiller and Molson Coors Brewing Co., which sells brands such as Miller Lite, Miller High Life, Miller Genuine Draft, Coors, Coors Light, Molson Canadian and Steel Reserve in the United States, with the purpose of combining all of their U.S. brewing operations to better compete against Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Pete Coors is chairman of the company and Molson Coors CEO Leo Kiely is also the CEO of the joint venture. Tom Long, CEO of Miller, is president and chief commercial officer.

The combined venture is headquartered in Chicago, IL, although SABMiller and Molson Coors still operate independently.

U.S. Cellular owns and operates the fifth largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, behind Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA. The company currently serves about 6.1 million customers in 126 markets in 26 U.S. states.

U.S. Cellular, which is starting to roll out a 3G network, sponsors Major League Baseball's Chicago White Sox.

GMR Marketing specializes in sports and entertainment engagement marketing through use of the interactive channels of retail, digital and live events. Its other clients using the mobile channel include Nokia, Bank of America Corp. and Lowe's.

A subsidiary of Omnicom and part of the Radiate Group, GMR Marketing is headquartered in Milwaukee, with offices in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, San Francisco, Charlotte, Toronto, Vancouver, London, Paris and Beijing.

GMR Mobile, formerly known as MangoMobile, runs the backend texting component, the GMR MillerCoors account team oversees and manages the activations involved, including program creation in conjunction with the Chicago-based MillerCoors marketing team, acting as a liaison between the White Sox and MillerCoors, facilitate approvals and campaign execution.

Beer Vendor Appreciation Month began on July 7, when the White Sox hosted the Cleveland Indians, and it wraps up on July 31, when the New York Yankees visit U.S. Cellular Field.

The text number for voting will be broadcast on the ballpark videoboard during the third inning, with results of the top-five vote-getters revealed during the seventh inning.

Vendors will be identified by buttons on their tray straps that display his or her vote individual text code.
That code during game time is texted to a short code.

GMR Mobile created a Web portal for the White Sox team to be able to log in and see the results live during the game.

The winning beer vendor will throw out a ceremonial first pitch prior to a White Sox home game and see his or her likeness depicted on a promotional bobblehead in 2010.

"MillerCoors has been very active in running text-to-win sweepstakes, but this is the first mobile program of this nature," Mr. Peck said. "It is a great way for fans to celebrate the hardworking beer vendors."