Sour Patch Kids has rolled out a mobile pilot initiative as part of Mondelez International?s Mobile Future program that aims to build brand awareness and engage consumers in a new way.

Sour Patch Kids worked with start-up Kiip on the mobile program. The Mobile Futures program paired nine start-up companies with brand teams to accelerate and scale existing mobile innovations in this first phase of the initiative.

?It was a great fit for us and our consumer target,? said Molly Scerra, senior associate brand manager at Sour Patch Kids, Deerfield, IL. ?We are doing a pilot right now on a pretty small scale and trying to test some things out.

?Our story is first we?re sour and then we?re sweet,? she said. ?One thing we?re doing is testing by giving rewards.

?So, when consumers hit a sour moment, like getting a low score or losing the game, the Sour Patch Kids will come in with a snarky remark, but we?ll throw you a bone or sample. We?re really testing how we can tie the program to the personality of the brand.?

Mobile program
Sour Patch Kids and Kiip, a mobile network that enables brands to reward in-app achievements, is bringing rewards to consumers in places and moments unique to both companies.

Additionally, the brand will also be testing out some integrations with iOS tools as part of Kiip's innovation roadmap.

?We also want to play with a digital coupon,? Ms. Scerra said. ?Couponing is not such a teen thing to do, but we want to see if we can integrate it into Passbook and see if the technology works.
?We?ve had a great experience with Kiip,? she said.

According to Brian Wong, CEO of Kiip, in-app rewards is an advertising mechanism to drive and leverage engagement and loyalty.

?Taking sour moments and turning them sweet ? it?s pretty awesome,? Mr. Wong said. ?That?s the initial execution of the campaign.

?We always want to reward these successful moments,? he said.

Other pilots
Sour Patch Kids is just one of the brands that is running a pilot program, which use mobile-at-retail, social TV and SoLoMo technology to enhance consumer experiences and drive impulse purchases.

Stride gum and Waze, a crowd-sourced traffic and navigation app, were the first to launch a pilot in February 2013, bringing users unexpected coupons for Stride gum at nearby retailers while on the go. 

According to Mondelez, early results were very positive, indicating that the mobile integration leads to increased store traffic.

Stride gum and Waze have two additional initiatives already underway and will continue to expand the partnership throughout the year as Waze brings new tools and services to its user base.

Chips Ahoy and social video start-up Shelby.tv launched a brand page on the platform, http://chipsahoy.tv.

The pilot program was centered around March Madness and it let college students to see March Madness through the eyes of Chips Ahoy. For example, the brand leveraged Shelby's video curation engine and video content from Tongal, a social content development start-up, to bring together the most trending March Madness footage.

Moreover, Nabisco's Wheat Thins, Ritz, Chips Ahoy, and Oreo all partnered with Endorse, an iOS and Android application that brings consumers a daily flow of offers that deliver them cash back on their favorite products.

Halls teamed up with Dailybreak to create a custom gaming challenge, while introducing consumers to the suite of Halls products and their cooling benefits.

Halls will continue to update their challenge throughout the year, including an in-store component that will see users completing mobile challenges at shelf.

Furthermore, Trident gum is leveraging Roximity's place-based proximity notification technology and database to drive impulse purchases of its products. 

When consumers enter a radius of certain stores, they will receive a notification with a Trident offer either via SMS, mobile application or in their Ford SYNC AppLink equipped vehicles. 

Consumers can then redeem the offer on their mobile device with a personalized bar code for Trident products.

Trident is also working with Lisnr to give consumers exclusive music content via both TV and social media. 

Trident's social media followers will receive push notifications with music content simply by downloading Lisnr and viewing Trident brand's online music content.

Oreo is working with Banjo, a SoLoMo app that curates social feeds based on location to create streams of real time, social content.

Oreo is tapping into events most relevant to their consumers, as well as events that it sponsors and the brand will provide unique, real-time content to enhance the event experience via the Banjo platform.

Finally, belVita Breakfast Biscuits partnered with inMarket to understand the impact of mobile technology on shopping conversion.

Through its CheckPoints mobile application, inMarket will allow belVita to incentivize shoppers to find and interact with the product and learn if the interactions ultimately drive to a sale.

?Mobile futures opened the door that marketers can work with start-ups and provide a great deal of value,? said Ed Kaczmarek, director of innovation and emerging technology at Mondelez International.

?We?re going to begin phase two in July,? he said. ?Once we go through that we?ll be able to share our key learnings.?

Final Take
Rimma Kats is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York