How the Mondelez Mobile Futures program is creating opportunities for startups and corporates

A team from Cadbury Daily Milk had their first taste of startup life last week, when they worked closely with startup Snaploader, as part of the Mondelez Mobile Futures program.

Cadbury Dairy Milk brand manager Steph Sarantakos and head of marketing Anthony Ho underwent an ‘immersion week’, which saw them work alongside the Snaploader team and experience startup life.

Snaploader director Vernon Williams says the clash of cultures was most evident during a morning meeting, when he and Eric Fink, founder and chief executive of Snaploader, were noting how much more structured their work environment had become.

Sarantakos says for her and Ho it was the opposite, they were working with much less structure than they were used to.

“We’re coming from polar opposites, but we’ve found a really happy middle ground with the Cadbury team,” Fink says with a laugh.

“The biggest challenge was aligning our expectations, but we overcame that really well,” Fink adds.

The Mondelez Mobile Futures program sees a number of startups work closely with Mondelez brands like Cadbury Dairy Milk and Philadelphia Cream Cheese to come up with mobile solutions for problems facing those brands.

Six startups were chosen including Snaploader, to receive $40,000 in funding, with the goal of launching a pilot program with their brands in three months’ time.

Fink describes Snaploader’s technology as “QR codes on steroids”.

It enables consumers to take a photo of any activated image and then links them to digital “touch points” like the brand’s Facebook page or Twitter account. It differs from QR codes as it links users to a host of digital content and allows them to find whatever suits them best.

Fink says working closely with Cadbury Dairy Milk has given the Snaploader team access to valuable data they would never get without such a partnership.

“As a startup we don’t have the luxury of having stats, we have to rely on our guts a lot more,” he says.

“It’s very refreshing for a company like Mondelez to be leaders in looking for innovation, rather than picking it up when it’s something safe and tested.”