Face-Off: Auto Brand Leverages Sports Sponsorship with Virtual Face Painting App

via Contagious.io

To promote its sponsorship of 100 US collegiate sports teams, car brand Nissan has created an app that allows fans to virtually paint their faces with their team colours. The Diehard Fans app lets users choose from a selection of designs, which represent nearly all the 100 collegiate teams covered in the sponsorship deal.

To use the app, football fans pick their school from a list and hold up their smartphone to scan their face. They can then swipe through a selection of painted looks in their team colours, which are layered onto their faces via augmented reality. Users can then share their look via social media, messaging apps and email. The designs were created by hand-painting them on human models and then digitally remastering them.

The app is being promoted with an online film featuring former Pittsburgh Panther player Tony Dorsett and Ohio State’s Troy Smith (see above).

Watch the spot here

Coca-Cola Meets Consumers in the Moment on Mobile

via Think With Google

When Coca-Cola launched its "Share a Coke" campaign, it recognized that people may turn to mobile to find their own customized Coke. The beverage brand reveals how "Share a Coke" inspired consumers to take action and how Coca-Cola was there for them in the moment on mobil.e

"Mobile is at the core of everything we're doing. If we can't make a story work on a 4-inch-by-2-inch screen, then it doesn't work, and it doesn't go further." - Wendy Clark, President, Sparkling Brands and Strategic Marketing for Coca-Cola North America

Watch Google's "Coca-Cola Meets Consumers in the Moment on Mobile" here.

Instagram's Ads Are About to Get More Facebook-y

via AdAge

Instagram's ads aren't just for brand building anymore. They're also for business building.

Instagram is tweaking its ads and the ways advertisers can buy them to make them as suitable for pushing product to likely customers as for promoting a brand to just about anyone.

In short, Instagram's ads and ad-buying process are becoming more on par with those of its parent company Facebook. For example, by the end of this year a retailer would be able to set up an Instagram ad targeted to its existing customers that includes a link to the retailer's e-commerce site and run the ad without calling up an Instagram sales rep -- just like it would for a Facebook ad.

"What we're seeing now from Instagram is really them maturing the business model. When they first came out of the gate [with ads in October 2013], it was very much a brand play," said Jonathan Schaaf, president of digital investment at Omnicom Media Group, which inked an ad deal with Instagram worth up to $100 million in March 2014.

Instagram is expanding beyond the small pool of digital-spending brand advertisers to the bigger pool of digital-spending direct-response advertisers. Individually those direct-response advertisers -- which include giants like AT&T and Geico as well as mom-and-pop shops -- may not all spend as much annually as the bigger brands. But because they know more precisely who they want to see their ad and how they want to measure the ad's effectiveness -- meriting their categorization as "direct-response" advertisers -- they're typically willing to pay more per ad and able to justify the higher cost.

Currently direct-response advertisers, in aggregate, are spending more money on digital ads than brand advertisers. Direct-response campaigns accounted for 59% of the $50 billion advertisers spent on digital ads in the U.S. last year, according to eMarketer estimates.

But these direct-response advertisers are usually only willing to pay for an ad if it leads to a certain outcome. These advertisers care about clicks more than eyeballs. That's why Instagram is rolling out links to all of its photo ads.

After adding links with its multi-photo Carousel ads in March, Instagram is rolling out links to its original single-photo ads (but still not adding them to unpaid Instagram posts). Beyond looking at a pretty picture and liking or commenting on it, brands can now try to get people to click on the ad to do things like buy a product on an advertiser's site or download an app. But brands won't be able to add the calls to action to Instagram's video ads, and people won't be able to purchase advertisers' products within Instagram.

"It's consistent with Instagram being a shop window, a lookbook, a product catalog. This is the next stage in enabling that. We're not going to the state of in-app commerce, but we do think this is both an advertiser-desired and a community-desired set of features," said Instagram's global head of business and brand development James Quarles.

At first, advertisers will have two ways of paying for these direct-response ads. They can pay for each click on an ad's included link. Or they can tell Instagram how much they'd be willing to pay for a click, and Instagram will serve the ads to people it believes are most likely to click on the ad -- within an advertiser's defined parameters -- and charge the advertiser based on the number of ad impressions served, which can be cheaper than paying per click.

 If an influx of direct-response advertisers doesn't drive up the cost of Instagram's ads, an influx of targeting options might. "It's a very real question and concern," Mr. Schaaf said. Typically the more targeted an ad is, the more expensive it is. And Instagram's ads will be soon be a lot more targeted.

Until now advertisers could only target their Instagram ads according to the intended audience's age, gender and country of residence. In an age where Facebook's advertisers can target ads based on things like what TV shows they likely watch, where they shop, what sports teams they like and where they work, Instagram's ad-targeting options are almost old school. No longer.
 

"We've moved beyond these really big brands that we've initially worked with who prioritized reach primarily. Smaller businesses have narrower audience targets, and we want to help them find those by interests or more specific geolocation demographics," Mr. Quarles said.

By the end of the year, all of the ways that a Facebook ad can be targeted will also be available for Instagram ad-targeting, including the ability for brands to use their own customer data for ad targeting as Facebook's Custom Audiences enables. And Instagram will also add the ability to target its ads based on what accounts people follow on Instagram.

Coke Zero Entices Final Four Fans With a Drinkable Billboard

via Creativity Online

Coke is promising hoops fans a whole lot of soda to go with the NCAA Final Four action in Indianapolis -- with the help of a massive drinkable billboard.

A giant Coke bottle and twisty straw form the basis of a massive 26x36 foot display in Indianapolis' White River State Park. It features 4,500 feet of tubing that spell "Taste It" while dispensing Coke Zero to a sampling station below.

White River State Park is the site of Coke Zero's Countdown Concert on Saturday. There, fans of rival Final Four teams will be able to compete in a Coke Zero "drink off" on their smartphones. By blowing into the microphones of their phones, they can race to finish virtual Coke Zero bottles projected on digital screens at the event. Winning teams will get free bottles of Coke Zero.

During the Final Four broadcast on Sunday, Coke will also debut a "drinkable" commercial that drives viewers to use Shazam. In doing so, as the spot shows Coke Zero being poured from a bottle, consumers will see a glass on their phones filling up with the soda. Other elements in the campaign include interactive kiosks and flyers that turn into straws. See a teaser video of the billboard here.

Coca-Cola begins 'doing far more with Coke Zero on mobile' with free giveaway

via The Drum

Coca-Cola has pledged to give away nearly half a million 500ml bottles of Coke Zero to mobile consumers with its #freecokezero integrated campaign.

From now until 10 May the soft drinks giant is offering on-the-go consumers a free bottle of Coke Zero via their mobile device in a bid to “drive further awareness of its great Coke taste and zero calorie offering to consumers,” said Bobby Brittain, UK marketing and activation strategy director.

“We’re excited to be doing far more with Coke Zero on mobile this year as it grows in importance as a delivery platform. It will ensure that busy on-the-go consumers are served the promotion for a refreshing Coke Zero in a convenient and accessible format, wherever they are,” Brittain added.

An accompanying 10 second TV commercial with a clear and simple message is set to run for two weeks. A promotional message will be included with the video on demand version to allow consumers to click through to the mobile voucher.

Coca-Cola is also giving away vouchers for a free 1.75lt bottle of Coke Zero with two million packs of Coca-Cola to be redeemed by 17 May 2015 and sampling teams will be handing out 150ml cans of Coke Zero across the UK during the promotional period.