Coca-Cola is placing mobile bar codes on its soda cups in restaurant chains such as McDonald?s that let consumers vie for a chance to win a trip to next year?s NCAA Men?s Final Four.

The company is working with SpyderLynk on the mobile initiative. SpyderLynk?s SnapTags can be seen on the McDonald?s soda cup and encourages consumers to snap, score and share.

"One of the key best practices when integrating mobile bar codes onto collateral materials, in this case McDonalds cups, is to have a call to action," said Mike Wehrs, president/CEO of Scanbuy, New York.

"Around 50 percent of people already have a code scanner app on their phone, but as a relatively new technology, education goes a long way to seeing stronger results," he said.

Mr. Wehrs is not affiliated with Coca-Cola or SpyderLynk. He commented based on his expertise on the subject.

Coca-Cola did not respond to press inquiries.

Chance to play
The Coca-Cola cups feature the SpyderLynk SnapTag, which includes the beverage giant?s bottle within the mobile bar code.

The Coca-Cola cup features the SpyderLynk SnapTag

Consumers are encouraged to snap a photo of the mobile bar code and send it to the short code 95871 or email it to .

When they do, users get a message or email back asking them to reply with the year of their birthday.

After consumers enter their birthday information, they receive another message that lets them claim a participating mobile college wallpaper of their choice.

The SMS message also includes a link where they can claim their wallpaper.

When users tap on the link they are redirected to a landing page where they can show support to participating colleges such as Arizona State University, Boston College, Dartmouth College and Georgetown University.

After users submit their choice they receive another SMS message with a downloadable college wallpaper attached.

From there, consumers can choose to share or forward the message to friends and family.

Additionally, when consumers text the mobile bar code to the short code 95871, they are automatically entered for a chance to win a trip to the 2013 NCAA Men?s Final Four game.

An initiative such as this is a great way for Coca-Cola to drive user engagement and interact with consumers no matter where they are.

Placing mobile bar codes on soda cups in restaurant chains such as McDonald?s helps spread the word about the campaign and gives Coca-Cola a way to reach as many consumers as possible.

In addition, not requiring users to download a mobile bar code reader is also a smart move on Coca-Cola?s part.

SMS is universal and giving consumers an option to simply snap a photo of the soda cup and text it in simplifies the process for users.

"According to our latest trend report for fourth-quarter 2011, the consumer packaged goods industry saw the most scans for the first time ever," Mr. Wehrs said.

"Taco Bell placed ScanLife QR codes on Taco Bell cups and food packaging in August and saw over 400,000 scans in 6 weeks ? they just launched another campaign so that strategy has been highly successful," he said. 

Brand awareness
Coca-Cola is not the only company working with SpyderLynk to strengthen its mobile campaigns.

Earlier this year, L?Oreal and Glamour introduced a new shopping experience within New York taxicabs that lets consumers view how-to videos featuring Yves Saint Laurent and Lancome beauty products and buy them on the spot.

L?Oreal and Glamour teamed up with SpyderLynk to deploy its SnapTags in taxis, which let consumers buy advertised products right then and there via their mobile device. The Snap-to-Buy technology was used during the upcoming NYC Fashion Week (see story).

Most recently, Juicy Couture was one of the many advertisers within Glamour magazine that brought its static ad to life and let consumers buy products through scannable mobile bar codes.

Glamour teamed up with SpyderLynk again to continue pushing its Glamour Friends & Fans app that lets consumers shop everything they love within the issue. The app is available for free download in Apple?s App Store (see story).

"Adoption is moving quickly among marketers, and we expect the activity to move from testing phases into being part of an ongoing communications strategy," Mr. Wehrs said. 

"They will move from simply linking to a basic URL to using QR Codes to deliver dynamic, relevant content for the user," he said. 

"This will mean using managed platform solutions that will add value and give marketers valuable metrics on engagement." 

Final Take
Rimma Kats is staff reporter on Mobile Marketer