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Coca-Cola sinks its claws into mobile for Super Bowl engagement

Coca-Cola is betting on mobile as a critical piece of second-screen interaction in its social media-fueled multiscreen marketing for the upcoming Super Bowl XLVII.

Coca-Cola?s Super Bowl marketing initiatives span television, Web, social media and mobile. On the mobile front, Coca-Cola has optimized all of its digital content for mobile, when users likely are watching the game with smartphones and tablets in hand.

"Real-time engagement with social media and alternative engagements are the essence of social, marketing consumer touch points," said Marci Troutman, CEO of SiteMinis, Atlanta.

"The essence of mobile is that it is mobile ? everyone is on their mobile device, with an event as large as the Super Bowl, social is the ultimate marketing venue for mobile," she said.

Ms. Troutman is not associated with Coca-Cola. She commented based on her expertise on the subject.

Coca-Cola did not meet press deadline.

Real-time engagement
Coca-Cola has launched a 30-second TV trailer leading up to its debut of its Super Bowl 60-second spot. The full 60-second spot is live online leading up to the event.

The TV spot?s plot centers around three different sets of characters all vying for a bottle of Coca-Cola as they race across a desert.

Calls-to-actions during the commercial encourage consumers to visit http://www.cokechase.com/, which serves as the primary hub of all digital efforts for the campaign.

The site?s main purpose is a second-screen engagement tool leading up to and during the Super Bowl. Through digital marketing, Coca-Cola is enlisting its fans to choose the ending to its television spot during the game.

Via the site, consumers can watch the 60-second clip and vote for three possible endings. Additionally, each character has their own hashtag that consumers can follow to root for their winner.

Once a user has voted they can then choose to sabotage the other teams, which unlocks additional video content. For an extra push, users can share content via Facebook and Twitter for additional chances to sabotage teams.

After the Super Bowl game ends, the winning ending will be featured in a 30-second clip to tell a complete story behind the campaign.

To support the Super Bowl campaign, paid media campaigns including a takeover of YouTube?s homepage are being used.

Additionally, content is being pushed via Coca-Cola?s social media accounts. For example, Coca-Cola?s Instagram account features two stills from the video spot and encourage consumers to vote and stay plugged into Coca-Cola leading up to the big game on Feb. 3.

Social TV
One of mobile?s biggest use cases around second-screen initiatives is with social media.

When consumers want to spread the word about what they are watching on TV, they turn to social media, which they are often accessing via a mobile device.

To tap into this opportunity, Coca-Cola has put real-time information at the center of its Super Bowl initiatives.

Last year, the brand ran a major campaign across social, TV and mobile screens to let users follow along with the iconic Coca-Cola bears in real-time while watching the game. The initiative also tied into Coca-Cola?s Arctic Home campaign to encourage donations to the World Wildlife Fund to help save polar bears (see story).

Earlier this year, a Coca-Cola executive at the NRF 102nd Annual Convention & Expo said that nine million users streamed online content during the game. Users spent an average of 28 minutes interacting with the polar bears (see story).

"There are a lot of variables in the term second screen, but at its basic level mobile device interaction will be driven by big screen TV marketing that links to mobile device interaction," Ms. Troutman said.

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