Coke is adding life to smartphone wallpapers. The cola giant has teamed with the Google-owned AdMob for a "Live Wallpaper" — an animated homescreen background that responds to touch and phone movement. In this case, the live wallpaper is playing on a motif in Coke's holiday ads. The brand's annual holiday commercial features Santa in his workshop surrounded by snowglobes showing various winter cityscapes. Santa tilts the globes together to reunite couples and families.
Now, Android users who download the live wallpaper app can mimic the action in the commercial. Tilt your phone and you'll send a man and a shopping cart on the screen careening to and fro. Shake the phone and the scene starts snowing, like a snow globe. (See demo above.)
To get the word out, Coke will promote the app via a mobile display ad campaign on the AdMob network, which Google bought announced the ability to play video over a phone — now a common feature — back in 2007. A Google rep says the app has been downloaded more than 100,000 times so far.