Mobile Conversations 2010: How Lay's used mobile medium for its flavour contest?

In a session at Mobile Conversations, a case study on Lay's crowdsourcing based contest and how the mobile medium was used for it was also shared by Ruchira Jaitly, executive vice-president, PepsiCo (India).

She pointed out that the company has used mobile as one of the core media for the crowdsourcing driven contest called "Give Us Your Dillicious Flavour". The contest is divided into three phases, and aims to involve consumers in the development of the next flavour of Lay's potato chips in India.

The first phase of the campaign, between November 2009 and January 2010, invited consumers to contribute or send their flavour ideas, along with slogans. The company selected four of the entries -- Cheesy Mexicana, Tangy Twist, Mastana Mango and Hip Hop Honey and Chilly -- submitted by consumers during this phase. The four winners were selected by a panel of judges, based on the flavour practicality, flavour that fits well with the Lay's brand and best slogan entry.

In the second phase, the four flavours were launched in the market. In the current or third phase, the company is marketing the four flavours and urging consumers to taste and vote for the best flavour. Voting is powered through SMS. The winner of the contest will get Rs 50 lakh and 1 per cent of overall sales.

Interestingly, for the first time, the company has used digital - display, search, social media, Youtube.com, voice, SMS and mobile internet advertising - as the core media in this contest, both for execution and participation. Traditional media, including TV, has been used for supporting and driving consumers to the digital platform.

SMS-based marketing using SMS Gupshup.com platform, push SMS campaign and SMS 2.0 services has been used to market the contest among the relevant audience. Mobile banner ads for contests were served on telecom operators' Web portals and on various mobile sites through mobile ad networks. Outbound calls were also made to engage consumers with the contest.

Jaitly claims that Lay's received 1.3 million flavour ideas; while more than a million votes are already in for the contest.

Mobile Conversations 2010 was organised by afaqs! in association with Affle, 160by2 and Navteq Media Solutions.