NEW YORK ? Brands need to bank 70 percent of their mobile strategy on channels that are proven to be effective, with SMS at the top of the list due to its reach, according to a senior executive keynoting the Mobile FirstLook: Strategy 2012 conference yesterday.

Then, brands can spread 20 percent of its mobile efforts to channels that tie directly with their main effort and test the remaining 10 percent on new innovations and channels. The Coke executive also spoke about the importance of how mobile ties in with other traditional channels and eluded to what consumers can expect from the brand in 2012.

?Mobile builds brand awareness and love,? said Tom Daly, director of mobile, search and global connections at Coca-Cola, Atlanta.

?The mindset is mobile enables things that money cannot buy, and create a bind that consumers have with a brand,? he said.

Mobile FirstLook: Strategy 2012 was a presentation of Napean, parent to Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily. 

Liquid and linked
Mr. Daly said that going forward, content needs to be liquid and linked, meaning that it will content will spread seamlessly from one channel to another.

For example, in the current Arctic Home campaign, Coke produced video content that runs across Web, mobile and broadcast.

Coke has been using mobile video since 2007 and was one of the first brands to test mobile video on Google?s AdMob network.

?The liquid portion is getting through to consumers at the moment of truth with creative ideas that are big and fertile enough to work across platforms,? Mr. Daly said.

?It links to business requirements and to the brand and thinking about what about the brand is important to consumers and what content can we make based on that connection,? he said.

Mr. Daly at the Mobile FirstLook: Strategy 2012 conference

According to Mr. Daly, Coke is manufactured in more than 200 countries, and is the fourth largest employer with employees that represent the Coke brands.

Coke also doles out 1.7 billion eight-ounce servings per day of the total 50.4 billion servings coming from the ready-to-drink beverage industry.

The company also claims to be the largest buyer of coolers and refrigerators, and has a larger fleet than UPS and FedEx combined.

Mobile has the ability to harness a well of data, per Mr. Daly who cited that Coca-Cola alone has a trillion points of data associated to mobile, illustrating the challenge of mining through and making sense of this data.

?When you think about the bright line that can be connected on mobile, it turns into brand and direct marketing, and creates a funnel of upstream transactions,? Mr. Daly said.

?Coke enables desire because when you are thirsty, but do not have money in my pocket it is friction,? he said.

?A mobile phone can satisfy Coke to hit that desire.?

Mobile bets
When developing mobile strategy, brands and marketers need to think strategically about what works and has the biggest punch for consumers.

For example, with smartphone penetration at only 40 percent in the United States, SMS is still the most effective way to reach a consumer.

? It is important to invest your energy into things you know works, and we know that SMS works and it is a thing to focus on,? Mr. Daly said.

?In places such as India, you are wasting time developing things such as applications because you need to get the basics down first,? he said.

Mr. Daly said that mobile traffic makes up ten percent of overall traffic across the company?s Web sites. Additionally, mobile makes up 17 percent of page views.

For Coke, the company has submitted 30 ? 40 mobile apps to the app markets. However, Mr. Daly says that those apps have been downloaded less than five million times, showing that the channel is not the best fit for the company.

Coke has also used mobile bar codes and has the technology on its radar for 2012. The beverage manufacturer tested on-package QR codes on cans of soda in Germany.

Location-based services will also play a big role for 2012 but market size needs to be considered more than overall mobile trends.

?When you contemplate using location-based services, aggregated statistics about mobile are not relevant,? Mr. Daly said.

?Instead, look at the mobile activity in each city because it is rare for an individual city to perform the same as an overall finding,? he said.

?The location opportunity for Coke is to create capabilities for customers that have locations that are compatible for it, and enable them to succeed.?

Coke has also tested mobile payments with NFC technology and per Mr. Daly, the company will continue to aggressively pursue in 2012.

Additionally, Coke is on a mission to double the size of its business by 2020 and mobile has increasingly gained a seat at the table when thinking about how to maximize the company.

Mr. Daly left attendees with a little taste of what Coke has planned for 2012 with the upcoming Olympics and said that mobile will play a huge role in the campaign.

?It will be a tightly integrated program with multiple touch points connected with television, Web and social,? Mr. Daly said.

Final Take
Tom Daly is director of mobile, search and global connections at Coca-Cola, Atlanta