NEW YORK ? A PepsiCo Inc. exec revealed at the Mobile Marketing Summit: Holiday Focus 2010 that the company uses the mobile Web, apps and SMS regularly, taking audience engagement to new levels to become the drink of choice of a new generation.

John Vail, director of digital production and promotions in the digital engagement group at Pepsi, Purchase, NY, spoke to his company?s mobile strategy. He revealed that Pepsi uses mobile to complement its promotions.

?I am not going to talk about mobile stats,? Mr. Vail said. ?We all know why we are here and we are believers.

?I will discuss things that make your stomach go down to your feet,? he said. ?A police car in your rearview mirror [LOL] and losing your wallet.

?The wallet will soon move into the mobile phone.?

Mr. Vail told the audience at Mobile Marketer?s Mobile Marketing Summit: Holiday Focus that Pepsi aims to engage consumers by providing them with rich digital content that leads to building relationships and high purchase intent.

No newbie to mobile
Pepsi has been in the mobile marketing business for the past seven years. Mr. Vail went over some of the promotions that company ran over the past few years.

?Mobile was a natural extension of our promos,? Mr. Vail said.

In 2003 Pepsi began testing in the mobile space. Consumers would text in the unique code under the cap of their Pepsi bottle for a chance to win a cash prize.

?We found that the people who played on mobile also played online,? Mr. Vail said. ?These are probably our most loyal consumers, who drink about six to seven Pepsi products everyday.?

Pepsi also ran a promotion with its Mountain Dew brand, offering winners of a text to win a new Xbox 360.

First mobile advertising program
The soft drink giant was the first advertiser to advertise on Yahoo Go. The campaign targeted specific demographics and was a nice addition to an online program.

By 2006, Pepsi was ready to go beyond just SMS.

The brand built a WAP deck around its national ringtone promotion, where consumers were able to text in their unique cap code to win a ringtone. Consumers could also enter the cap code on a dedicated WAP site.

In 2007, Pepsi ran a text to vote program to support its Pepsi Clutch Award.

Consumers could text the keyword PEPSI to 99778 to cast their vote.

?I think in 2008 we began to explore deeper consumer engagement,? Mr. Vail said.

Deeper engagement
Pepsi ran a mobile video advertising campaign on MTV Networks? mobile properties.

The company used pre-roll and banner ads to speak its brand message to consumers.

In 2008, Pepsi rolled out its very first mobile application.

The branded mobile application was for its Mountain Dew soft drink, bringing back a '50s icon as a key attraction for its target audience of active consumers.

A mobile game, the application features Willy the Hillbilly trying to protect his jugs of Mountain Dew from being stolen by others. The game was created by interactive agency Tribal DDB, New York, and hosted on Zumobi's mobile content platform.

In 2009, Pepsi teamed up with MTV and the "Rock Band" game for the "Drink Up, Rock Out" promotion.

As part of the promotion, Pepsi had an iPhone application in the App Store that let users transform pictures of themselves or friends into their favorite rock stars. Zumobi created the application.

The Pepsi Refresh Progect also has a mobile component. As part of the promotion, Pepsi is looking for people, businesses and nonprofits with ideas that will have a positive impact.

Consumers can post their ideas and others can vote on the ideas they like the most.

People can vote via SMS. Every idea had its own unique identifier.

?Expect Pepsi Refresh mobile experiences,? Mr. Vail revealed. ?We will be launching iPhone and Android platforms in fall 2010.?

Customer loyalty
In May of this year, Pepsi debuted application-centered mobile initiatives to help its restaurant partners inspire customer loyalty and drive consumers to nearby locations.

The company is working on two separate initiatives. There is an exclusive partnership with location-based mobile social networking application Foursquare and the launch of its own Pepsi Loot location-based application for Apple?s iPhone and iPod touch.

The free-to-consumers Pepsi Loot application lets users connect, engage with the brand and earn rewards while consuming Pepsi products at a number of partner foodservice locations nationwide.

?I hear a lot from folks that have not been very aggressive with mobile,? Mr. Vail said. ?I recommend avoiding implementing mobile just to ?check the box.'

?As for the iPad, we?ll have something coming out shortly,? he said. ?It will be centered around the Pepsi Max product.?

Here is a photo of John Vail, director of digital production and promotions at Pepsi:

Final take
Here is a snippet of Mr. Vail's presentation:

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