PepsiCo?s Lay?s is putting mobile in the forefront of its latest campaign that includes SMS, social media and the mobile Web.

The ?Do Us a Flavor? campaign encourages consumers to submit creations on their favorite chip flavors. In addition, the campaign is using. Lay?s claims that the campaign is the brand?s largest marketing campaign to date.

"Most marketing channels like television, radio and print are static, which means they're hard to interact with. By adding a mobile component to these marketing channels, a brand is now able to interact with consumers, where before the interaction would have been completely passive," said Derek Johnson, CEO of Tatango, Seattle.

"If you're going to allow consumers to vote with their mobile phone, there's no better way than with SMS," he said. "This comes down to technology adoption ? with SMS you're reaching a much broader audience than with apps, mobile Web sites or QR codes."

Mr. Johnson is not affiliated with Lay's. He commented based on his expertise on the subject.

Lay's did not respond to press inquiries.

Mobile votes
The campaign encourages consumers to invent their own potato chip flavor and is running through Oct. 6.

Lay?s is using on-package calls-to-action to promote the SMS campaign. Additionally, the program is being promoted on the campaign?s Facebook page and Web site.

To participate, consumers can text the keyword FLAVOR to the short code 24477 or CHIPS.

Users are then sent a message back that prompts them to send in their idea for a chip flavor with a name, three ingredients and a brief explanation of the inspiration behind their creation.

The site also has a mobile microsite where consumers can enter their flavor combinations, learn more about the campaign and vote for their favorite chips. For desktop users, there is a Facebook app with similar features.

Entries will be judged by food experts including celebrities Iron Chef Michael Symon and Eva Longoria to three final submissions.

The three chip flavors will then be rolled out across the country next year to let consumers pick their favorite flavor. The user who creates the winning flavor will receive either $1 million or one percent of the product?s net sales, depending on which one is more. The runner-ups will win $50,000 each.

Digital push
By using a combination of social media, mobile Web and SMS, the Lay?s campaign caters to both feature phone and smartphone users.

Additionally, the campaign is an example of how many brands are banking on mobile as a primary way for consumers to participate in contests.

For example, PepsiCo also recently partnered with Arby?s on a summer campaign that encouraged users to snap pictures of cups featuring musicians to drive entries for a summer concert sweepstakes (see story).

Letting consumers enter the sweepstakes via mobile is a smart move for Lay?s. Users are increasingly spending less time on desktops and relying on their mobile devices as the go-to device to do everything.

However, the key to letting consumers enter sweepstakes on mobile is to keep the process as simple as possible. 

"I think the best way to build a mobile entry form for a sweepstakes and have the highest participation rate is through a series of SMS messages, prompting the consumer at each step for another piece of information," Mr. Johnson said.

"This is significantly better than an entry form hosted on a mobile Web site, as text message adoption compared to mobile Web adoption is dramatically higher."

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York