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Coca-Cola isolates mobile?s value, driving groundbreaking new experiences

NEW YORK ? A Coca-Cola executive at Mobile Marketer's Mobile FirstLook: Strategy 2015 conference said the brand?s recent successes in isolating mobile?s value are helping drive exciting new engagement strategies involving drones, new ways to enable engagement with pop stars and more.  

Tom Daly, Coca Cola?s global group director, said the company has been able to track and isolate the positive value of mobile tactics and their impact on sales. That data will play a key role in the Atlanta-based company?s strategy aimed at reaching consumers at what it calls the instant before desire.

Mobile tactics highlighted in promotional videos from abroad showed drones apparently laden with Sprite showering beach-goers with the soft drink, then dropping cans of Sprite on the beach, and Coca-Cola drinkers doing a virtual duet with a celebrity musician. 

?The truth is that mobile wasn?t really well understood until now,? Mr. Daly said in the conference?s opening keynote speech, the end of which saw him inducted into the Mobile Hall of Fame. ?I can tell you that we have a factual basis to quantify the positive value of mobile advertising in driving sales.? 

Getting smarter
The key is using mobile smarter, not using more of it, Mr. Daly said.

?We have insights that suggest native advertising might be better than some hybrid experience in the context of apps,? he said, citing Mobile Marketing Association analysis. 

Isolating mobile's value.

?Video is really promising,? he said. ?[So is] specific mobile creative ? not repurposing what you might put onto a desktop browser or taking your TV video and putting it on a mobile device. And then the role that location plays, which is clearly a unique and differentiating capability for mobile plays a role.? 

Despite mobile?s proven positive sales impact, a campaign should never rest solely on mobile, he said.

?It is never, ever just a mobile program,? Mr. Daly said, during a part of the talk that focused on marketing Coca-Cola?s Gold Peak Tea brand.

Harnessing the power of connections through mobile has been a key objective for the soft drink giant, and an underlying organizational philosophy.

Structuring an organization to promote internal networking helps avoid silos that can hamper mobile?s potential to build engagement and drive sales globally.

?No matter how good any one bottler may be, two bottlers together are better,? Mr. Daly said. ?No matter how convenient having two telephones is, having five is more valuable. I can phone more people. 

?One country killing it, doing great with mobile is amazing,? Mr. Daly said. ?It is more amazing when it is connected to the work that a second country is doing. 

?There is always greater value in bringing networks together,? he said.  ?We do have organizational realities that we have to recognize and build things in a way that allows freedom within a framework.?

The keynote session, Coca-Cola: Marketing in a Mobile World, explored how mobile is a transformational macro-force and how marketers and marketing must evolve to remain relevant and effective.  

Coca-Cola, which sees nearly 2 billion servings of its products every day, was named 2014 Mobile Marketer of the Year earlier this month, the highest accolade in mobile advertising, marketing and media. 

When many other marketers are still testing the mobile waters, many of Coca-Cola?s global marketing programs give mobile a central role, with the added step of localizing how mobile is leveraged to the preferences of each market.

?We believe mobile can become a sixth sense using the phone in one hand to put a Coke in the other by detecting the instant before desire,? Mr. Daly said. ?How we can close that gap remains a fundamental driver for the things we do.?

A video supporting Mr. Daly?s presentation said mobile is helping erase the line between consumer marketing and shopper marketing, as people use their phones to buy anything anyplace. 

Mobile carriers are figuring out ways to provide mobile payments to one billion people with a phone and no bank account, the video said. Coca-Cola has more than 70,000 vending machines that accept NFC payments, including Softcard and Apple Pay.

Point of sale
?Winning at the point of sale means winning with mobile,? the video said. ?The mobile influence goes beyond marketing but impacts every aspect of the system. Mobile technology is impacting route optimization, product mix, merchandising, out of stock and data acquisition.
 
Tom Daly at Mobile First Look.

?The trick is to connect the power of our system network to the power of mobile networks,? the video said. ?Networks create increased value by adding connections. Two phones make one connection. Five phones make 10 connections, 12 make 66 and so it goes.?

Mr. Daly criticized responsive Web site design. 

?All responsive does is make the content show up on the screen, as if all screens were the same, as modality was the same, as if context was the same,? he said.

Final Take
Michael Barris is staff reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York.