Coca-Cola soft drink brand Fanta?s use of mobile to promote its Search for the Fourth Fantana campaign set new records for mobile engagement.

The mobile advertising campaign was able to deliver 15 times more video views than any other national, interactive video campaign. Millennial Media, Baltimore, powered the mobile initiative.

?In May of 2009 we launched the Search for the Fourth Fantana campaign,? said Anita Rajendra, media and interactive manager at Coca-Cola North America. ?Understanding our primary target audience, youth, was key to the success of the campaign. 

?Fanta?s consumer segment relies heavily on their mobile devices and social media to obtain their information,? she said. ?As a result, we created an innovative mobile advertising campaign that helped generate consumer awareness and participation. 

?To achieve this objective we implemented an integrated and customizable program that allowed consumers to interact and get to know the Fantanas from their mobile device.?  

Fanta is a global brand of fruit-flavored soft drink.

The Fantanas are a group of models/spokeswomen who promote the Fanta brand in the United States. The quartet has appeared since 2002 in advertising and personal appearances. There have been four different versions of the Fantanas since the group's debut.

Fans gulp mobile
Fanta used an array of creative and media agencies for the development of the Fantanas campaign, including Millennial Media, Arcade Creative Group and Starcom Mediavest Group.

The Fanta brand leveraged advanced Java programming, which it claims has never before been used in mobile banner advertising. It created an eye-catching countdown clock ticking backward to the date of the Fourth Fantana announcement. 

To keep users engaged, a tool was embedded into the program, allowing consumers to learn more about the Fantanas and download free videos, wallpapers and ringtones by simply tapping on the Fantanas image without leaving the banner ad.

Mobile advertising was one of the many tactics used by the brand to reach its target audience. 

Other platforms used to fulfill Fanta?s marketing goals were television, out-of-home, cinema and online digital advertising. 

This was not Fanta's first move into the mobile space.

Coca-Cola Europe targeted tech-savvy consumers mostly in their 20s with two new mobile applications created to push the Fanta soft drink (see story).

?Mobile played a critical role in our efforts to connect with Fanta?s primary audience, youth, especially multicultural youth,? Ms. Rajendra said. ?Research shows that multicultural youth over-index in the mobile media usage space so it was a natural fit for us to leverage this tool to connect with them in a relevant and personal way.

?The Search for the Fourth Fantana campaign exceeded industry benchmark for click-through rate,? she said. ?The campaign generated strong user interaction and video views, exceeding our expectations.?