PepsiCo will launch a mobile loyalty application for the iPhone this month to connect consumers with fast-food restaurants that sell its products. Mobile services firm Zumobi created the app.
The “Pepsi Loot” app will use geotargeting to help consumers locate nearby restaurants, or “pop spots,” that serve Pepsi, including Pizza Hut, Arby’s, Taco Bell and IHOP. It will be the soft-drink brand’s first geotargeted iPhone app, said Margery Schelling, CMO for PepsiCo Foodservice.
When a consumer visits a participating location, he or she can use the app to check in and earn loyalty credits, or “Loot,” she explained, adding that Apple must approve the app before an official launch date is set.
“When you walk into a restaurant, you don’t have to send in a code,” said Schelling. “You just pick up your phone and check in, and you automatically get credit for Pepsi Loot.”
Consumers can exchange points for downloads from artists such as Keane, Katherine McPhee and Jamie Cullum. Participating locations, or “pop spot partners,” can also create their own offers.
“You win cool stuff for doing something that you are going to do anyway,” Schelling said.
To promote the app, Pepsi is distributing e-mails to its database and running digital and mobile ads. The company will also use in-store signage to introduce the program to consumers.
At its launch, the app will only be available for the iPhone. However, Pepsi could expand it to other mobile platforms depending on its performance, said Schelling.
Pepsi also recently partnered with Foursquare to run retailer-specific marketing programs.
