Ready to share your ‘limeface’ with the world?

Corona is hitting the streets in Ontario, Alberta and BC with the ‘Corona Get Real Million Lime Giveaway,’ the first phase of a new campaign promoting the brand’s signature partner-in-crime, the lime.

Street teams will be roaming high-traffic street corners, consumer shows, events and retailers in Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver with little bags of limes to give to passersby. Each bag of limes features a unique PIN code, which consumers can enter online for the chance to win a travel voucher for $2,400 to anywhere contest sponsor Marlin Travel goes. People will also be encouraged to make a ‘limeface’ (a.k.a. the kind of pucker-up only sour fruit can deliver), which will then be uploaded to CoronaGetReal.ca

Supporting the campaign is a media plan that includes radio in Calgary and Edmonton with stations targeting adults 25 to 49, including CIBK, CJAY and CFXL in Calgary; CFBR, CFMG and CKNO in Edmonton; and CKZZ, CFBT, CFOX in Vancouver. The broadcast buys are also complemented with big box and leaderboard ads on Virgin Radio station websites. Facebook and Google Ad Words were also included in the buy.

The campaign was primarily handled by Match Marketing Group of Toronto, with media buying by independent contractor Ron Christie and additional creative support by The Marketing Channel, also of Toronto.

The goal was to ‘bring Corona top of mind in these long winter months,’ explains Lindsay Wilson, marketing manager, Corona Canada, noting that Corona really owns the lime category when it comes to beer complements.

‘We wanted to actually give them a chance to get away, to ‘find their beach,’ so to speak,’ she says. ‘With Corona, a lot of people think of it as just a summer beer, but we wanted to reach them at a time when they may not be thinking of Corona.’

The contest website features a lime-giveaway counter (117,227 at press time); a ‘Limeface Gallery,’ where street teams will be uploading photos of people’s ‘limefaces’ taken at events; contest entry and details; a coupon; recipes; and suggested food pairings.

The ‘Corona Get Real Million Lime Giveaway’ was launched March 4 and continues until April 3.