Sales Promotion and Personal Selling.

Coca-Cola Co. is running a mobile campaign via the ChaCha mobile answer service to generate interest in its loyalty program and Coke Zero soft drink. The soft drinks giant is one of ChaCha's first advertisers. ChaCha has been charged with enabling a conversational relationship between Coca-Cola and the millions of users of its answer service.

"Since our launch we have experienced explosive growth," said Jay Highley, chief marketing officer of ChaCha, Indianapolis, IN. "This growth made us realize that we have the power to help advertisers by letting them target our audience." Coca-Cola and ChaCha kicked off their mobile marketing engagement at the Allstate Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 27. With targeted responses and event-based marketing, Coca-Cola engaged users in a new and innovative relationship to encourage interactive conversations.

Using ChaCha's service to deploy ads, Coca-Cola so far has seen a 5.2 percent click-through rate, compared to 1 percent to 2 percent industry averages. In addition, Coca-Cola will gain a deeper understanding of its consumers as well as a simple way to track usage patterns and customer data during the campaign. Here's how it works-

• Users can call 1-800-2CHACHA or text questions to ChaCha (242 242) on mobile phones and receive answers within minutes.
• After receiving a text back with the answers, users receive another text with the Coca-Cola promotion.
• The promotion encourages users to join the My Coke rewards program and to try out the Coke Zero soft drink.
• The SMS also includes a link to the My Coke Rewards WAP site at http://mycokerewards.com.

ChaCha is helping Coca-Cola transform traditional and static advertising into dynamic mobile campaigns, in-venue mobile marketing and targeted offers to most mobile phone users regardless of their handset type. The service couples ChaCha's Mobile Answers -- claimed as the fastest growing mobile application in the world, attracting a new user every 10 seconds -- with analytics and reporting.

This way, marketers such as Coca-Cola can engage consumers and stay top of mind with relevant, personalized mobile information about its brand, products and promotions. ChaCha's demographic is unique in that 53 percent are repeat users, the company claims. Also, 83 percent consider the service to be very valuable.

The average user uses ChaCha over 30 times per month. Eighty-eight percent hear about the service from a friend. Users are ages 18-34 and use the service socially and for utilitarian purposes. "Our service is unique because our users trust our brand, making them more receptive to advertisiements served through our services," Mr. Highley said.

"The Coke campaign is our flagship and was targeted in terms of geography," he said. "We believe this campaign is a significant extension of other branding and marketing initiatives because we allow for a very intimate, one-on-one relationship.

"For advertisers we are basically creating an opportunity for them to reach, talk with and engage our loyal user base. The ads are part of the user's interaction and are not intrusive at all. Our advertisers get great reach."