GSMA Announces Finalists for the Coca-Cola Brand App Challenge

LONDON, February 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- Coca-Cola Selects 15 Developers to Move Forward in Competition to Create Innovative Mobile Apps

The GSMA today announced the finalists for the 2011 Brand App Challenge, a competition in which mobile application developers create "brand apps" for Coca-Cola under its Coca-Cola, Coke Zero and Diet Coke brands. Five finalists were announced for each Coca-Cola brand and these 15 developers will now move forward in the final stage of evaluation to select the winners of the Brand App Challenge. The winning apps will be announced at the GSMA Mobile World Congress taking place February 14-17 in Barcelona.

"The Brand App Challenge is one of the most exciting new elements in this year's App Planet developer event at Mobile World Congress," said Michael O'Hara, chief marketing officer for the GSMA. "We're thrilled to be working with Coca-Cola in the inaugural Brand App Challenge and we're very impressed with the quality of the entries we've seen so far. We're looking forward to continuing the Brand App Challenge programme and helping to establish new dialogue and collaboration between the mobile community and major brands such as Coca-Cola."

    
    Coca-Cola Finalists:
    "Share Happiness" by Mike VanBeneden, USA
    "Happiness is Now" by Marco Reinbold, Germany
    "Happiness is Everywhere" by Mobext, Spain
    "Coke Music Maker" by Ed Barlow, England
    "Cokeoke" by Hana Kadlecova, USA

    Diet Coke Finalists:
    "Robo Coke" by IntelMind, Poland
    "Light Moment" by Ron van den Berg, Netherlands
    "Lighten Up" by Pete Herron, USA
    "Coke Diet Extra Studio" by Maksymilian Jorzak, Poland
    "Diet Coke Good Vibrations" by Antonio Garcia, Spain

    Coke Zero Finalists:
    "Heroes Meets Zeros" by Two Bulls, USA
    "Reward Goals" by Mike VanBeneden, USA
    "Cola Dance" by Andrei Neculaesei, Romania
    "Meeting Your Favourite Pop Star" by App Factory, Denmark
    "Crazy Voice Coca-Cola Edition" by Slawomir Baranowski, Poland

"We're delighted with the creativity and imagination that the developers have demonstrated in the first Brand App Challenge, as well as the geographical diversity of the entries," said Tom Daly, Group Manager, Strategy & Planning, Global Interactive Marketing Group at The Coca-Cola Company. "Coca-Cola has always believed that innovation can happen anywhere. Our collaboration with the GSMA in the Brand App Challenge has allowed us to tap into the broad mobile application developer community and to discover new talent that we may work with in the future."

In the Brand App Challenge, developers were tasked with submitting a video of their idea or app for Coca-Cola, Diet Coke or Coke Zero, based on guidance and objectives set out in a brief by Coca-Cola. Entries were allowed across a wide range of mobile operating systems including Android, Apple iOS, BlackBerry OS 6, HP webOS, Symbian and Windows Phone 7. There are five prizes per brand, with the first place winner receiving $10,000, a trip to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and the opportunity to meet with the Coca-Cola team.

For more information on the finalists and their submissions, the Brand App Challenge programme and to register interest for future competitions, please visit http://www.brandappchallenge.com.

About the GSMA

The GSMA represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry. Spanning 219 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world's mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organisations. The GSMA is focused on innovating, incubating and creating new opportunities for its membership, all with the end goal of driving the growth of the mobile communications industry.

For more information, please visit Mobile World Live, the new online portal for the mobile communications industry, at http://www.mobileworldlive.com or the GSMA corporate website at http://www.gsmworld.com.