Pepsi launches America's biggest bluetooth campaign

This is pretty exciting stuff. Qwikker, the mobile content delivery specialists, have enabled Pepsi’s massive bluetooth marketing campaign.

I’ve always been a leeeeetle bit suspect of Bluetooth marketing used incorrectly — but this kind of implementation, particularly at bus shelters and the like, should be particularly effective. ‘27% opt-in rates’ sounds pretty effective to me.

Here are the details:

Qwikker announced today that Pepsi has launched the largest Bluetooth marketing campaign in the U.S. The campaign to deliver viral video clips, which went live on April 2nd, runs for two months in outdoor advertising locations consisting of bus shelters in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Denver and Orange County, and pay phone kiosks in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. This campaign marks a milestone for the interactive marketing industry as the first multi-city, multi-network Bluetooth marketing campaign in the US.

The participating out of home media networks are CBS Outdoor, CBS/Decaux, Clear Channel Outdoor, and Prime Point Media. Each of these networks has integrated Qwikker’s Bluetooth content distribution technology into their street furniture. Any consumer with a Bluetooth enabled phone is able to download free video clips from a Pepsi Smash advertisement. The viral video clips being distributed are five ‘Pass The Mic” clips of freestyle hip hop*, provided by Yahoo! Music.

Bluetooth marketing is quickly establishing itself as a cost effective and efficient channel to communicate with consumers. In the first week of the Pepsi campaign, opt-in rates to download content were 27% across the network.

Jodi Senese, EVP of Marketing at CBS Outdoor, said, ‘Outdoor displays are the perfect vehicle for brands to connect with today’s mobile consumer. The addition of Qwikker technology provides a conduit for the delivery of a detailed message or offer from those outdoor locations. It’s the perfect combination of branding and engagement.”

Karen Robinson, CEO of Prime Point Media said, “Bluetooth delivers a truly interactive user experience. It supercharges a campaign by allowing delivery of brand-driven content to a consumer’s cell phone, a part of their daily lives. By enabling specific 700,000 phone kiosk locations with Qwikker Bluetooth technology, we can physically target the campaign to maximize contextual relevance, such as point-of-sale support at convenience stores for Pepsi. ‘

Now, I really like the last bit of Saul’s paragraph here… (and, I put his photo there on the right)

Saul Kato, CTO and founder of Qwikker, added, ‘We’re enabling consumers to respond directly to a brand marketing message on the street and leave with a piece of entertaining digital content, all for free. This is the simplest way for brands to leverage the power of the mobile phone as a rich media channel living right in the pockets of their audiences. Outdoor media locations are transformed into points of instant digital gratification.”

Love it. Instant digital gratification. More, please, more!

By the way, want to see what one of their Bluetooth units looks like?

Here it is: