Cola calling: a marketing promotion employs a high-tech can of soda that doubles as a GPS-enabled cell phone

GPS World, August, 2004 by Marty Whitford

This Coca-Cola can is "the real thing"--for those looking for James Bond-type gadgetry, that is. Designed not by "Q," but in partnership by Airo Wireless of Atlanta, Georgia, and Salo, Finland's Benefon, the can at first glance uncannily resembles most other Cokes in packaging, shape, height and weight. But that's as far as the similarities stretch because this Coke can contains no tasty beverage. It's a cleverly disguised GPS-enabled cell phone, and only 128 were manufactured as part of Coca-Cola Co.'s "Unexpected Summer" sweepstakes, launched May 17. An outside marketing agency randomly placed 120 of the high-tech Coke cans in specially marked multipacks of Coca-Cola. Eight extra GPS Coke cans were made for spares.

The Surreal Thing

The GPS cans feature specially designed graphics and a recessed panel with buttons that, when pressed, activate the GPS receiver and cellular phone. The inside of each winning can is configured with a subscriber identity module (SIM) card that enables the container to serve as a cell phone that works in conjunction with an embedded GPS transponder.

A Coca-Cola spokesman said the marketing promotion helped boost beverage sales in the United States and educated consumers on the basics of how GPS technology works and the myriad benefits it delivers.

When winning consumers press the large red "activate phone" button on the outside of their cans, they automatically place a phone call to the Unexpected Summer headquarters. Staff asks the individuals if they want to play the game and if so, they have to agree to carry the Coke can around with them wherever they go for up to a week. The GPS transponder in the can allows it to be tracked within 50 feet anywhere in America. Of the first 40 GPS Coke can winners, just one had to be shipped the prize (rather than tracked down and surprised on site) due to the individual's hectic travel schedule.

At some point during the week, one of Coca-Cola's five Unexpected Summer search teams nationwide tracked the sweepstakes participant down via the Coke can's GPS transponder and awards the individual a prize. The Unexpected Summer sweepstakes included a chance to win vacations, cars, TVs, and other consumer electronic products. At the sweepstakes' web site, consumers could watch the tracking of cans that have been called in. Contestants were required to return their rare GPS Coke cans to qualify for a prize.

Beer with a Satellite Chaser

Coors Light was the first beverage company to hold a marketing promotion that located contest winners via GPS technology. In fall 2001, the company outfitted three bottles in three Coors Light cases sold in Quebec, Canada, with GPS receivers and cellular transceivers. The GPS devices activated when the bottle caps were twisted off (see GPS World, September 2001).

The initial promotion was so successful from a sales and branding standpoint that Coors Light repeated the contest in 2002 and launched a similar promotion throughout Canada in 2003.

Brian Troxell, director of engineering for Airo Wireless, said he first heard of Coca-Cola's GPS in a can contest when it was being beta tested in Australia last year during the Rugby World Cup finals. Winners Down Under were tracked via GPS and cellular technology that was simply sandwiched together inside a few large plastic Coke bottles. The specially designed plastic Coke bottles twisted in half, allowing the tracking devices to easily be placed within.

"From a design perspective, the Australian contest was a walk on the beach compared to our Coke can re-engineering project. Having said that, we did have quite a head-start on our GPS Coke can because we already had proven GPS-enabled cellular technology inhouse thanks to our partner Benefon, whose products we resell exclusively in North America," Troxell said.

Can Do Attitude

An avid Coke drinker, Troxell said he was ecstatic when Airo Wireless was brought in with Benefon to help create the GPS-enabled Coke can cell phone, but confidentiality agreements and a tight engineering timeline (four months) kept him and a team of about 15 other engineers quiet until the contest was launched.

The GPS Coke cans were engineered primarily by Benefon in Finland and tested and certified in Atlanta by Airo Wireless. Ever wonder how companies squeeze miniature sailboats into tiny bottles? That's kind of what Airo Wireless and Benefon were wondering at the onset of this project.

"We basically had to take a GPS-enabled cell phone and squeeze it into a can, and redesign and repackage it so it looked and felt like a typical Coke can," Troxell said. "We had to make the same technology components work in a space that was about an inch smaller and a half-inch less wide than the Benefon Track Pro NT."

Weighty Issues. The GPS Coke can tips the scales just a half-ounce or so lighter than its beverage-filled counterpart, which took some re-engineering given the weight that the components of the 185-gram Benefon cell phone added to the equation.