Energy drink brand Red Bull is running mobile ads that not only educate consumers about a new social media-driven campaign but also let them enter on the spot to redeem a free four-pack of the beverage.

The mobile ads are part of Red Bull?s Share Your Wings campaign that is heavily tied in with mobile Web, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram. The Red Bull ads are running inside the Spotify iPhone application.

?This is obviously brand strategy dependent, but seasonal mobile ads provide a platform for companies to connect their brand with current lifestyle activities and as a way to stimulate immediate brand response,? said Adel Jalili, interactive art director at Mile 9, Calabasas, CA.

?For the Red Bull summer promotion, they?ve developed a great way to connect with the lifestyle association of the brand while leveraging mobile not only as the ad medium, but also as the live-response platform,? he said.

Mr. Jalili is not affiliated with Red Bull. He commented based on his expertise on the subject.

Red Bull did not respond to press inquiries.

Social driver
The Red Bull audio encourage users to share their summer experience with friends by enjoying Red Bull.

The ads feature a button to let users sign-up for the campaign.

When tapped on, users are redirected to a mobile microsite for the campaign that explains how users enter the contest.

Users are encouraged to share a photo that represents activities that can be done during a summer day.

Consumers can then submit their photos and vote on others by syncing their Facebook account with the mobile site.

The mobile site then pulls in the user?s contact information to send participants an email once a submission is made. The email contains a coupon that can be printed and redeemed at either a Duane Reade or Walgreens location.

In addition to receiving a four-pack, consumers are entered to win a trip to an upcoming Red Bull event in Chicago on September 8.

Users can also enter by uploading a photo on Twitter, Instagram or Tumblr with the hashtag #shareyourwings.

The Red Bull campaign microsite

Added incentive
A campaign such as Red Bull?s shows the increasing role that social media is playing in mobile campaigns.

For a campaign that is heavily influenced by social media, using mobile advertising to increase sweepstakes entries can be a great way for brands to boost participation.

By encouraging users to share content, it helps spread the word about a campaign.

Red Bull has a strong social media presence across multiple sites and is smart to include mobile as a way to attract both new consumers and users who are already familiar with Red Bull?s social media pull.

Additionally, including a reward ? such as a free four-pack of drinks or a trip ? is a great way for brands to drive social media activity and impressions via mobile.

Red Bull is no stranger to mobile.

For example, the company recently ran a campaign that claimed to generate 10 percent of event registrations (see story).

Additionally, last year Red Bull ran on-package calls-to-action to drive downloads and engagement of a branded augmented reality app (see story).

?Mobile and social are quickly converging with mobile becoming the primary platform and gateway for social interactions,? Mr. Jalili said.

?That convergence is also enabling brand marketers to capitalize on the social and mobile demographic user base assimilation. They?re both tech-savvy and social-savvy. And by utilizing integrated cross-platform promotions, they?re able to gain efficiencies of scale and reach. Social integration not only acts as a metric, but it also acts as a viral steroid as it can be shared via millions of friends and exponentially grow the exposure and viral buzz of the campaign,? he said.

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