PepsiCo?s Lipton is ramping up its social media presence for the brand?s summer promotion with musical group Lady Antebellum by running mobile advertisements.

The Lipton campaign is part of a multichannel campaign that also includes television, radio, print and other digital components. The ads are running inside the Spotify iPhone application.

"We believe that the key to driving meaningful connections with our consumers is to deliver the right message in a contextually relevant environment," said Marc Hanson, marketing director for Lipton, Purchase, NY.

"We strive for our advertising and content to entertain and engage our fans in an active dialogue," he said.

"We partnered with Spotify?s mobile app as a natural way to communicate the Lipton and Lady Antebellum partnership to people when they are already interacting with music. We think the Spotify mobile partnership is a perfect way to reach our consumers with the right message at the right time."

Sweet deal
The Lipton ads are running as audio clips in Spotify?s app between songs.

A 15-second audio clip encourages users to tap on a mobile landing page that features the band and a call-to-action to click to watch a video.

When users tap on the landing page, they leave the app and are taken to the campaign?s channel inside the YouTube app.

Consumers can watch Webisodes from the campaign with the band.

Users can also visit Lipton?s YouTube to learn more about the campaign, including commercials and short video clips.

Lipton is one of the first brands marketing in Spotify?s new mobile radio service.

Earlier this month, Spotify furthered its mobile strategy by adding a mobile radio section to its iPhone app, positioning the service closer to competitor Pandora with an ad-supported mobile music model (see story).

The Lipton audio ads

Digital connection
Social media is inherently mobile with consumers accessing and updating all of their sites via mobile.

By using mobile to its advantage, more brands are realizing that the channel is part of a holistic, multichannel strategy.

In Lipton?s case, using mobile advertising as part of a broader national campaign works in the company?s favor because it is able to repurpose some of its traditional and digital pieces of creative to mobile.

Lipton is not the only PepsiCo. brand currently using mobile ads to drive YouTube impressions.

The beverage giant?s Mountain Dew brand is similarly using mobile video and ads as part of a multichannel campaign aimed at digitally-savvy, young males (see story).

This kind of marketing can be used in turn to keep brand awareness high and top-of-mind while a consumer is shopping.

"Mobile is an important part of Lipton?s consumer engagement strategy because our core target audience is constantly on the go and using mobile devices to manage their schedules, connect with friends and family, and access entertainment throughout their day," Mr. Hanson said.

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