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Bacardi targets heavy mobile users via Pandora-based content, contest

Author

Caitlyn Bohannon
Spirits company Bacardi is targeting heavy mobile users with a contest on Pandora that rewards entrants with free vacation tickets while promoting the brand's Triangle station.

Mobile listeners using the Triangle station will be met with a Bacardi ad, enticing them to enter the contest. Through this contest, Bacardi activates the social aspects of its brand to relate to outgoing mobile device users.

?Music, a key passion point for our target consumer, has always been a part of the Bacardi rum DNA,? said Kevin Oglesby, brand director of the rum category at Bacardi U.S.A., Inc., Miami. ?Bacardi Triangle, our latest and most ambitious music-related marketing program ever, is aimed at a consumer who is heavily engaged with their mobile devices throughout the day.

?These consumers are most apt to listen to streaming music services such as Pandora via a mobile device.?

Partying in Puerto Rico
?As listeners are using the Bacardi Triangle station, the bottom half of the screen that contains the lyrics to the current song contains an ad for the contest.

Bacardi asks users to enter their name, phone number and birthdate to enter. 


Through this contest, Bacardi is trying to attract its most dedicated fans via mobile and offer them a one-of-a-kind experience. It is in Bacardi?s best interest to serve its most loyal fans, and mobile has proven to be a strong channel to reach these users.

Users who are already listening to the Bacardi station would serve as beneficial attendees to the event in Puerto Rico, being that they are most likely to share their experience even further via social media sites given their predetermined interest in the music content.

The three-day music festival will begin October 30 and go through November 2. Participants have a chance to enter until October 15.

Artists such as Calvin Harris, Kendrick Lamar and Elle Goulding will perform at Bacardi Triangle.
There will be five total winners, who will each be able to bring along three additional guests. During the weekend-long event, winners will stay at the Waldorf Astoria El Conquistador in Puerto Rico. 

An experience such as this is likely to create brand loyalty and promotion from the contests? winners.?

Combining two forces?
Earlier this year, Bacardi pulled double duty with a mobile site and application as part of a campaign that aimed to position its products for a young adult crew by tapping into the mixology trend.

The spirits brand?s Mixed Cocktails campaign was meant to show consumers the numerous options that consumers have to make their own, bar-grade cocktails at home. The app and site were part of a bigger partnership that Bacardi developed with culinary brand Jamie Oliver Group (see story).

The Pandora platform has shown as a positive influence for advertisers.

In 2013, Pandora?s mobile revenue growth outpaced mobile listener growth for the second quarter in a row, pointing to how the Internet radio company was improving its ability to monetize mobile.

During the fiscal 2013 fourth quarter, Pandora?s total mobile revenue grew 111 percent for a total of $80.3 million while mobile listener hour growth was up 70 percent year-over-year. Of that, $70.8 million came from mobile advertising and $9.5 million from mobile subscriptions (see story).

As users are listening to music on Pandora, they are often viewing the graphics, reading lyrics to the songs, or liking particular songs on each channel. The attention that users give the platform during consumption open a convenient advertising channel for various brands, such as Bacardi.

?We have learned through a previous partnership with Pandora that more than 90 percent of users engaged with our custom Bacardi station on their mobile devices versus desktop,? Mr. Oglesby said. ?For us, this underscores the need to make mobile a huge area of focus for us on the Bacardi Triangle campaign.?

Final Take?
Caitlyn Bohannon is an editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York