Coke partners Pioco in biggest Bluetooth campaign

Beijing - Coca Cola has partnered with Pioco by wiring thousands of hotspots in and around the Olympic stadiums, hotels, restaurants, clubs, cafes and other leisure venues in Beijing and Shanghai to broadcast Coca-Cola Bluetooth video commercials to Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones.  

The partnership will allow Bluetooth-enabled consumers to receive a message on their device when they enter a hotspot asking if they would like to download content from Coca-Cola, an official sponsor of the Beijing Olympic Games.

Pioco has been working with Coca-cola for about two years now and the campaigns have returned great results. Steve Chao, co-founder and CEO for Pioco said, "In previous campaigns, we've seen conversion rates closer to 35%. At events that prompt participants to enable their Bluetooth devices, as will be the case with many Olympic hotspot locations, we've seen conversion rates up to 65%."

Within Beijing, Pioco has built a Bluetooth hotspot network that spread from the International Trade Centre, Zhongguancun commercial district, Wangfujing shopping street and Xidan shopping district to Dongzhimen transportation node, Xizhimen subway and other transportation hubs around the city.

Coca-cola believes that the campaign will reach more consumers than traditional forms of media. "Our outreach has extended to television, online outlets, magazines, out-of-home and other print media, but this campaign is unique in that it allows us to directly reach consumers in outdoor entertainment venues", Michelle Yang, media director for Coca Cola China said.

She added that Pioco has already enabled the company to reach millions of consumers in hundreds of Chinese cities via Coke's Olympic Torch relay truck in preparation for the summer Olympic Games. "We're projecting we'll reach millions more local and visiting international consumers over the course of the games", Yang said.

Headquartered in Shanghai, Pioco specialises in B2C interactive communications supported by Bluetooth broadcasting of media, set graphics, sound, text, video and animation. It also has offices in Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Taipei.