I’m no fan of Coca-Cola. That said, their television ad running throughout the Olympics is quite clever. It features British DJ, producer and musician Mark Ronson, who sampled sounds produced by five Olympics athletes doing their thing. There’s the thud of a taekwondo competitor kicking her opponent, the thwack of a table tennis paddle connecting with the ball, the throaty breath of a track star exhaling.
These and other sporty sounds are weaved into a percussive dance beat, some vocals are tossed into the mix, and the end result is Coca-Cola’s “anthem” for this year’s Olympics games. While the song provides the soundtrack for the TV spot, the visuals show the athletes producing this music, seemingly (yet inconceivably) orchestrated live.
As all this action is happening on screen, a small blue graphic in the corner of your television set urges the viewer to “Shazam Now”.
For those not familiar with Shazam, they’re a London-based company that produces an eponymous mobile app that listens to the music you’re hearing and will tell you what the name of the artist and song are. It also provides related web links, typically to watch a music video on YouTube, purchase the album, or read the song lyrics.
Intrigued by a TV ad that beckons me to Shazam it – I’ve never seen such a thing before — I grabbed my phone and did just that.
Up popped the screen on the left, which identified the song and dished up a video of Olympic athletes discussing their favourite music. (A judgemental aside: some of these guys have truly awful taste in music, listing Nickelback, Céline Dion and Justin Bieber as their personal favs.)
Shazam also offered other “exclusive” content, including a prominent link to “Enter To Win Prize Pack”. Curious, I tapped the link on my phone’s screen. And that is precisely where Coca-Cola’s clever Olympic marketing scheme fell apart and lost me.
The web page that opened is clearly not designed to be viewed on a mobile phone. (See the image to the left.) The page is optimized for a wide computer monitor, the font is tiny, and you barely even notice the contest entry form.
Much zooming and scrolling would be needed to read the text and fill out the entry form. The average visitor simply isn’t going to bother, and neither did I.
Why would Coca-Cola send users to a landing page that isn’t optimized for mobile devices? Shazam only exists as mobile app, so clearly anyone clicking on that contest link is using a mobile device.
Coke is ultimately sabotaging their own clever marketing initiative by putting up a veritable roadblock right before the finish line. Shouldn’t a consumer-focused corporation with annual revenues of over $46 billion really know better?
Now the web page to the left, from the London 2012 Olympic Games website, is an example of a mobile landing page that works. Why? Because it’s actually created for mobile devices. It’s designed to fit my screen, it’s simple and legible.
The purpose of the page is clear: enter your email address to get a newsletter. It took me all of 7 seconds to fill out the form, no pinching and scrolling required.
As I mentioned before, I really don’t like the Coca-Cola Company, so I’m not exactly disheartened by their goof up. But I’d hate to see something similar happen to you.
P.S. A quick Google search for “mobile landing page” will give you some ideas and resources to ensure that your mobile campaigns don’t hit a dead end.
