Fanta targets mobile-savvy teens with Snapchat-powered OOH campaign

Brief:

Coca-Cola's Fanta brand of fruit-flavored sodas paired its traditional out-of-home (OOH) advertising with Snap's augmented reality (AR) technology for an immersive campaign. The "It’s a Thing" campaign lets Snapchat users point their smartphones at Fanta's billboards and posters to unlock digital content including shareable AR filters and sticker packs, per an announcement shared with Mobile Marketer.
Fanta also created "finstas" on Instagram — borrowing a slang term for secondary accounts on the image-sharing app — to highlight different personalities of its orange, strawberry, grape and pineapple flavors. The finstas have hidden content and experiences that can only be found in easter eggs hidden within posts on the official Fanta account.
Fanta also created four digital videos called "flavor stories" for each fruit that has companion OOH ads in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Washington. The brand partnered with youth-driven entertainment platforms Fandom and PicsArt, along with Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, on competitions and other artistic efforts aimed at sparking creativity among teens.

Insight:

Fanta's multichannel campaign includes a combination of OOH advertising and social media to reach younger consumers who are more likely to consume media on their smartphones but are drinking less soda. Snap claims it reaches 90% of 13- to 24-year-olds, making it appealing to brands like Fanta that want to cultivate their next generation of customers. AR content like Fanta's filters and sticker packs are also popular among Snapchat users. Snap last year said about 70 million of its users play with its AR lenses every day, giving brands like Fanta a chance to engage audiences with brand-immersive content.

Fanta's "It’s a Thing" theme emphasizes authentic experiences that younger consumers seek as they develop brand preferences. Authenticity is a desirable characteristic among Generation Z consumers, with 67% of females ages 13 to 24 saying "being true to their values and beliefs makes a person cool" in a survey by consultancy Irregular Labs. By creating finstas for its flavors, Fanta is attempting to get in on a trend that has allowed teens to be their most authentic selves on social media.

"Young people are taking more conscious steps to stand out as individuals and express themselves uniquely through their micro-passions," Tutul Rahman, brand director of Fanta, said in a story posted to Coca-Cola Journey, the company's digital magazine.

Fanta is among the brands that have combined mobile technology with OOH advertising, which not only is a powerful channel that urges consumers to visit physical locations, but also can trigger measurable responses through mobile devices. McDonald's last month deployed an OOH promotion that included an integration with Snapchat to bring ad posters to life with AR imagery. Game developer Niantic in July ran a campaign to promote the AR game "Pokémon Go" that urged gamers to visit specific locations in New York. Fast food chain Wingstop this year hosted a "Flavor World" tour that combined mobile, social media and OOH ads to engage customers at select locations throughout the country.