Coca-Cola is kicking off a nationwide location-based rewards initiative targeted at young teens with SCVNGR as its platform of choice. The soda maker has seeded Simon Malls across the U.S. with challenges that players can complete to earn special Coke rewards.
The campaign is called Coke Secret Formula and is set to go live at 10 malls beginning November 26 -- otherwise known to holiday shoppers as Black Friday. The idea is to encourage application users to look for hidden shopping experiences in the form of Coke challenges and unlock rewards in the process.
SCVNGR players who complete the Coke mall challenges can accumulate enough points to redeem instant rewards including American Express gift cards and Coke-branded merchandise. In total, Coke will be giving away $100,000 in gift card rewards. The challenges are typical SCVNGR fare -- checkins and photos -- themed to fit the Coke Secret Formula purpose.
Coke will be aggressively promoting the initiative with online, print and mall signage to include giant elevator wrappers like the one pictured above. CEO and founder Seth Priebatsch tells Mashable that Coke will also deploy mall street teams on Black Friday to educate shoppers on how to use SCVNGR and get them excited about the experience.
Landing Coke is a big coup for the young startup, who competes with the likes of Foursquare and Facebook Places. Priebatsch said that he half-jokingly told new hire Chris Mahl, SCVNGR's chief brand alchemist, to "go get us a parternship with Coke" as his first task. Mahl followed through.