Coca-Cola?s vitaminwater brand recently completed a marketing program in which it engaged consumers via a mobile sweepstakes.

Options Media Group Holdings hosted the promotion for the vitaminwater campaign, which featured Kobe Bryant of the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers. The campaign ran through May 13.

?SMS was the ideal way to let people quickly and easily participate in the sweepstakes,? said Scott Frohman, CEO of Options Media, Boca Raton, FL. ?The fact that SMS let people instantly join the program is why it was the medium of choice.?

Vitaminwater is a low-calorie drink that is made and marketed by Glaceau, a subsidiary of the Coca-Cola Co.

Mobile slam dunk
Through the promotion, members of the public were able to send a text message to enter for a chance to win a VIP invite to a basketball-viewing party at ESPN Zone in Los Angeles.

Calls-to-action for the sweepstakes were promoted on billboards and in stores that sell the product.

The campaign used SMS for greater reach, so that anyone could text in and participate in the sweepstakes.

Fifty-two percent of subscribers use their mobile phone for non-voice activities such as SMS, email, taking photos or playing a game on a regular basis, according to Pew.

Sending text messages remains the mainstay activity for mobile phone users. They are more than twice as likely to send a text on the average day as do anything else.

According to Mr. Frohman, vitaminwater will not be using the list it built in the sweepstakes for remarketing, which is unfortunate because the campaign actually got a large response.

The sweepstakes was purely a branding initiative to let people know about vitaminwater.

This was not the brand?s first foray into mobile.

In December, a vitaminwater-branded Sound Lab application featuring hip-hop superstar 50 Cent was downloaded more than 250,000 times in the first two weeks after its induction into the App Store.

Built on the Romplr platform developed by branded content agency skyrockit, formerly Moderati, the application lets fans download and remix the artist?s newest single ?Baby By Me.?

A mobile advertising campaign across the AdMob and Quattro Wireless mobile ad networks pushed 50?s Sound Lab application to No. 1 in the Top Free Music applications in the App Store (see story).

In 2008, vitaminwater, tapped mobile marketing agency EnMobile to attract Generation-Y consumers and increase brand awareness (see story).

The vitaminwater campaign used SMS and let consumers text in and receive a coupon via their mobile device.

Consumers were asked to text the keyword VITAMINWATER to the short code 41513.

The winner of the sweepstakes received a free year's supply of vitaminwater.

Options Media is a growing force in mobile marketing and mobile social media.

"The vitaminwater promotion is representative of the many types of new promotions we are handling for our growing client base,? Mr. Frohman said. ?While we have recently entered in the market for promotions via social networking and into the fast growing mobile phone applications market, our traditional email and SMS business remains quite healthy and continues to provide high gross margins.

?We plan to remain in a growth phase relative to this business line as we begin to move into the social media and cell/smart phone application business, both of which are already beginning to show strong promise,? he said.