• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, November 8, 2011

In the latest extension of The Coca-Cola Company ‘s “Arctic Home” campaign – aimed at upping its soda brands’ fall/winter sales through a cause-related tie-in – Coca-Cola and 7-Eleven have partnered on a “Snowball Effect” interactive app and other marketing efforts.

The Arctic Home campaign, supporting the World Wildlife Federation’s efforts to conserve the polar bear’s Arctic habitat, is Coca-Cola N.A.’s most ambitious holiday program to date. It consists of extensive integrated marketing efforts surrounding Coca-Cola’s major investment in distributing 1.4 billion special, white Coke cans featuring the Coke polar bears in the U.S. and Canada between this fall and March 2012.

Coca-Cola’s partnership with 7-Eleven includes in-store promotions and a limited-time Sprite Snowball Slurpee flavor, as well as the Snowball Effect app.

Users of the app – for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices -- get points toward winning prizes by challenging friends to virtual snowball fights, entering codes on specially-marked, peel-away stickers on Coke packaging and Slurpee and Big Gulp cups, or by checking in at any of 7-Eleven’s 6,400 U.S. stores.

Participants must have Facebook accounts, and must become members of Slurpee Rewards to enter codes from 7-Eleven and Coke products and be eligible to win prizes. Through Facebook, they can share the app and play one another in the snowball fights. The more active users are with the app, the more chances they get to earn points and win prizes.

Each week during the nine-week promotion, 7-Eleven will award iPads to eight winners, based on the highest cumulative scores posted. At the promotion’s end, iPads will be awarded at random to eight more users, and the Snowball Effect’s grand prize – a trip for two to the Arctic – will be awarded to the user with the highest cumulative number of points.

Through Dec. 31, the Snowball Effect app can be downloaded free by visiting ArcticHome.com/7-Eleven or Apple’s App Store, or by scanning QR codes on Slurpee and Big Gulp cups and 7-Eleven in-store signage. The 7-Eleven.com and Slurpee.com home pages will feature promotions encouraging visitors to download the app.

The app will raise funds for the WWF polar-bear environment cause by directing users to ArcticHome.com, where they can enter codes from Coca-Cola products to trigger an individual $1 donation. Coca-Cola will match all donations made with a package code by March 15, 2012 (up to a total of $1 million).

Coca-Cola has been supporting WWF’s polar-bear-arctic-habitat conservation efforts for four years, according to the company. Its Arctic Home campaign -- which also includes white caps on bottles of Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Sprite, Nestea, Minute Maid and other C-C beverage brands -- commits the company to contributing up to $3 million to the cause.