7-Eleven and Coca-Cola?s Powerade have teamed up to put QR codes on its Big Gulp cups that let March Madness basketball fans view exclusive video content.

Each of the four collectible Miracle Match-up Big Gulp cups feature a former NCAA basketball student-athlete during a game-changing play. 7-Eleven has dabbled with QR codes in past campaigns.

?We ran the Coca-Cola Arctic Home Snowball Effect promotion in November/December of 2011 and had QR codes on signage and cups,? said Margaret Chabris, a spokeswoman for 7-Eleven, Dallas.  

?We learned that we need a clear call to action on the cup and a strong benefit for someone to want to take action,? she said.

7-Eleven operates, franchises and licenses more than 8,400 7-Eleven stores in the United States.

The Coca-Cola Co. portfolio features brands including Diet Coke, Fanta, Sprite, Coca-Cola Zero, vitaminwater, Powerade, Minute Maid, Simply, Georgia and Del Valle.

Mobile exclusive
There is a mobile bar code on each cup that links to Powerade?s mobile site where CBS Sports Analyst, Greg Anthony hosts a brief video on that cup's featured big play.

For a limited time, the video content is exclusive to 7-Eleven, compliments of Powerade.

In addition to the mobile bar codes, both 7-Eleven and Powerade are using other channels such as social media to engage consumers during March Madness.

Users who tweet answers to daily basketball opinion or trivia questions on Twitter and include the hashtag ? #BigGulpHoop ? will be entered to win a Slurpee-branded mini-basketball hoop and ball.

In addition, 7-Eleven has created a virtual towel pop ? similar to painful towel pops in locker rooms after a big game ? that lets users send to friends from the Slurpee Web page.

Past efforts
Last year 7-Eleven stepped up its mobile game and used the medium to engage with consumers.

In April, 7-Eleven ran a mobile rewards program that let ?Thor? fans check-in to any location and redeem points and rewards having to do with the film (see story).

In May, 7-Eleven drove  ?Hangover Part II? fans to its locations and let them compete in mobile challenges to win prizes such as a trip to Las Vegas.

The company let consumers compete in challenges using the Scvngr mobile application. Consumers were encouraged to check into participating 7-Eleven locations to participate (see story).

With the new March Madness initiative, the company is showing that mobile plays a big role in its overall strategy and using different mobile channels helps build the consumer and brand relationship.

?The exclusive content developed for ?Miracle Match-Up? is available via mobile Web site that accessed by scanning the QR code,? Ms. Chabris said. 

?There also is some mobile media driving people to our mobile site to learn more about the cups,? she said.

Final Take
Rimma Kats is staff reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York