NEW YORK ? Mondelez International?s outreach to start-ups for cutting-edge input into shopper challenges on mobile will bring the snacks company speed and efficiency offered by the new companies? spare approach, a launch event for its Shopper Futures program was told.

The program, launched at Twitter?s New York offices, will pair the company?s brands with select start-up enterprises from across the United States and Canada to accelerate mobile-enhanced solutions to bolster approaches to retail challenges. Building on Mondelez? successful 2012 Mobile Futures initiative, the initiative is a way for the maker of Oreo cookies, Triscuit crackers, Toblerone chocolate and Trident gum to stay on top of the rapidly evolving mobile space by gathering ideas from new and fringe members of the marketplace.

?When we sit down and say, we come from different worlds, but let?s have a conversation, you find things that start to connect,? said Kathryn Sheaffer, North American lead for shopper futures with Mondelez. 

?This is the time when you can?t fail,? said Ms. Sheaffer, who worked with Mondelez? Stride gum brand with then-start-up Waze in the Mobile Futures initiative. ?Failure is not learning anything. 

?The heart of the program is setting something up in which you create something new together and then you come back and you say, what do we all think about the results?? she said. ?And if you do that, even if it?s not what you expected, if you learned something from that, you didn?t really fail.?

Mondelez is calling for tech and mobile startups in the United States and Canada to apply for the program between now and June 27. 

After identifying top startups, the company will host a pitch event Aug. 5-6 where nine final startups will be selected to partner with brands and retailers. The teams will then collaborate to design and execute a pilot in market within 90 days.

While Mondelez is a 2013 winner of Mobile Marketer?s Mobile Marketer of the Year Award, with rollouts of mobile advertising, applications, sites, augmented reality and search initiatives tailored to each of its more than 50 brands, it hopes that using expertise from the newly established companies will prove helpful in tackling challenges in the shopper space.

For instance, the proliferation of smartphones has changed impulse buying. Where once, brands of gum such as Mondelez?s Trident located at the grocery check-out counter could be snapped up by shoppers as they unloaded groceries, now they no longer notice the gum selection as they simultaneously talk on their mobile phones and place items on the belt, a trend that has hurt overall sales of gum.

The event included a panel consisting of Gina Waldhorn, cofounder of Evolution, Ms. Sheaffer, Alex Josephson, head of brand strategy for Twitter, and Brian Shimmerlik, whose start-up company, Vengo Labs, a maker of a combined mini-vending machine and ad network, partnered with Trident last year.

?First, get out of your office, there are amazing incubators out there,? Ms. Waldhorn said, when asked what advice she would give marketers to encourage them to look at start-ups for help. 

While partnerships bring different benefits to each side, both will find value in the collaboration. Brands can gain from speedier, more efficient start-ups operating with minimal resources, while startups can leverage the brand?s greater resources advantageously.

Mr. Shimmerlik?s Vengo Labs engages consumers and collects data by combining interactive digital media with point-of-purchase. Its vending machines enable brands to re-engage consumers while generating appealing unit economics. 

Besides Mondelez, Vengo also has partnered with Snapple, Verizon, CC Vending and New York taxi company Creative Mobile Technologies.

?This isn?t scary, it?s an opportunity,? Mr. Shimmerlik said to the prospective start-ups in the audience.