Coca-Cola Beams via Bluetooth in Beijing

Olympic sponsor The Coca-Cola Co. is offering its commercial content to millions of Beijing citizens and visitors via their mobile phones in a collaboration with the country’s largest Bluetooth media company.

It’s reportedly the first time an Olympic sponsor has used Bluetooth to run an out-of-home campaign during the Games.

Shanghai-based Bluetooth provider Pioco has wired thousands of hotspots in both Beijing and Shanghai where passersby are likely to be following Olympic results: in and around the stadiums, the nearby restaurants and clubs and high-traffic areas such as Beijing’s financial, international trade and shopping districts, as well as important transportation hubs.

When consumers carry Bluetooth-enabled handsets into these hotspots, they will be asked if they wish to download ad content from Coca-Cola for viewing on their phones at a later time.

The Coke campaign is aimed at reaching young Chinese consumers, who will be able to forward the downloaded ads to their friends. The ads are the same TV spots Coke has been running on Chinese television. In July, Coke also made the ad content available via Bluetooth-enabled trucks that followed the Olympic torch through its tour of major Chinese cities.

Pioco has partnered with Coca-Cola on other Bluetooth campaigns over the last two years.

Pioco CEO Steve Chao said in a statement that those previous campaigns have seen conversion rates of up to 35%; that is, 35% of the audience reached agreed to download the Coke content. At events that actively prompt participants to turn on their Bluetooth features—as is happening at many of the Olympic hotspot locations—that conversion rate can reach 65%, he added.

Pioco hotspots at the Olympic sites are marked with special lighted signs that remind consumers to turn on their phones’ Bluetooth functions. The company is reported to have installed more than 500 hotspots around Beijing in preparation for the Olympics.

“Pioco has already enabled us to reach millions of consumers in hundreds of Chinese cities via Coke’s Olympic Torch Relay Truck,” Coca-Cola China Media Director Michelle Yang said in a statement. “We’re projecting we’ll reach millions more local and visiting international consumers over the course of the Games.”

Bluetooth campaigns have reportedly done well in Chinese metro markets because high urban densities make hotspot networks more efficient than in many western cities. More than 350 million Chinese may have cell phones equipped with Bluetooth capabilities.