Confectionery manufacturer Mondelēz International has announced the results of its brand marketing Mobile Futures initiative, as the brand and startup partners conclude the final pilot stage.

The marketing initiative saw some of Australia’s most innovative technology startups partner with iconic brands, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Favourites, BelVita, Marvellous Creations and Philadelphia cream cheese.

Australian Food News reported in July 2014 that Mondelez had chosen five local startups — Issue, Proximiti, Snaploader, SkyFii and MyShout — to partner with some of Australia’s biggest and most popular brands to address a “brand challenge” in just 90 days. Mondelez said that during the three month program, the teams “unlocked significant market and customer insights”, using the startups’ respective technologies to create new mobile concepts. The Company said initial results indicated the program has gone beyond its goals to deliver ongoing innovation for the global business and future opportunities for the startups.

Mondelēz International, Inc. is a global snacking powerhouse, with 2013 revenue of US$35 billion. With its products available in 165 countries, Mondelēz International is a world leader in biscuits, chocolate, gum, candy, coffee and powdered beverages. In Australia and New Zealand, iconic brands include Cadbury chocolate, Vegemite spread, The Natural Confectionery Company candy, Oreo biscuits and Philadelphia cream cheese.

“The results from each of the pilots have already surpassed our expectations and we’re looking forward to seeing how these startups can help us create new experiences for Australian consumers with our brands,” said Anthony Ho, Head of Marketing Services, Mondelēz International.

Pilot Results:

Cadbury Daily Milk and Snaploader

Cadbury Dairy Milk partnered with Snaploader, an image recognition and augmented reality app, to “unlock the joy within consumers” through a campaign that brings to life the range of Cadbury Dairy Milk flavours.

The pilot launched in early November 2014, supported by in store activation in 20 Victorian Woolworths stores and a high reach Facebook campaign. The pilot featured a competition to “win your height in chocolate” to encourage consumers to download Snaploader and unlock “joyful” branded content within the app. Consumers entered the competition using the Snaploader app to “snap” an image of a Cadbury Dairy Milk pack. Once in the app, consumers discovered an augmented reality feature to bring the Cadbury Dairy Milk flavour personalities to life and could access a variety of different recipes.

Snaploader has had a successful start to the pilot with 1,100+ app downloads in the first week of launch driven by the targeted advertising campaign on Facebook. The point of sale executed in Woolworths also assisted with the path to purchase for Cadbury Dairy Milk in store – a key pilot objective.

Cadbury Favourites and SkyFii

Cadbury Favourites leveraged startup partner SkyFii’s Wi-Fi technology to help understand their consumers and engage with them via mobile, in real time. The pilot focused on the understanding that consumers were more likely to purchase Favourites as a last minute item, using SkyFii’s platform to better understand shopping behaviour.

The first pilot test in November 2014 centered on a promotion for Favourites Christmas large pack, measuring shopping patterns to identify the right time to connect with consumers, drive them in store and measure the conversion rate. Mondelez said later phases were in development and would expand the scale of tracking to provide deeper shopper insights and measure purchase conversion. SkyFii are currently in discussion with Cadbury teams in South East Asia to explore potential applications for international Cadbury brands.

Philly and Issue

Philadelphia cream cheese and Issue, a platform to create beautiful mini-magazines for mobile and tablet readers, were the first to launch their pilot in market in September 2014, just 23 days after partnering.

The pilot created a mobile magazine with shoppable stories, sharing Philly food inspiration through mobile content to inspire and engage consumers. The first phase of the pilot was created in partnership with Smudge Publishing. The first branded Issue reached more than 75,000 consumers in three weeks. Mondelez said the team was currently exploring retail partnerships to bring the mobile magazine experience directly in-store to engage with consumers at the point of purchase.

belVita Breakfast Biscuits and Proximiti

belVita Breakfast Biscuits and location-based services platform, Proximiti, collaborated to personalise content and use geo-analytics to learn more about the behaviour of belVita consumers.

belVita also used the startup’s technology to geo-target consumers on mobile to amplify its “morning wins” campaign by connecting with consumers and sending geo-targeted offers to direct the path to purchase, resulting in click-through rates of 32 per cent. The team launched the first phase of their pilot on 14 October 2014 near Flinders Street train station in Melbourne, with a geo-targeted offer for a free coffee and sample of belVita to nearby commuters, recording 43 per cent redemption rates.

The partners are currently assessing new opportunities to scale location-based consumer engagement through retailer partnerships and amplify the campaign through major publishers.

Cadbury Marvellous Creations and MyShout

Cadbury Marvellous Creations partnered with MyShout, an app that allows consumers to ‘shout’ vouchers to their friends at participating outlets that can be redeemed via their mobile device.

Using the MyShout platform for redemption, Marvellous Creations set out to reach their target demographic and explored a new, potentially more cost efficient sampling method via mobile coupon redemption. The small scale pilot trial in Sydney CBD achieved an above target click through and overall 11.7 per cent claim rate. Marvellous Creations is also looking to understand how the brand could transition the established behavior of buying drinks/meals for friends and colleagues into the chocolate category.

The Mobile Futures Network

The Mobile Futures partner network features some of the leading organisations in the tech startup ecosystem, including incubators, accelerators, shared work spaces, plus more, allowing us to tap into the most talented technologists and entrepreneurs to submit a startup application to the program. Members include: Evol8tion, Pollenizer, Facebook, LBMA, Hub Australia, MMA, BlueChilli, TechBeach Manly, Spacecubed, Startmate and ATP Innovations, Inspire9 and Angelcubed.