DEERFIELD, Ill. -- Mondelez International Inc.'s Oreo cookie brand has rolled out a star chart messaging app--Oreo Skies. Putting its own twist on traditional mobile messaging, Oreo teamed up with Nokia to develop a smartphone app designed to connect people through the stars.
Using augmented reality technology, the Oreo Skies mobile app, now available exclusively on Nokia Lumia Windows smartphones, allows users to write messages and attaching them to actual constellations revealed in the app.
"The Mondelez International Mobile Innovation Lab with Nokia is a key component of our mobile strategy, together with our incubation program, Mobile Futures," said Bonin Bough , vice president for global media and consumer engagement at Mondelez International. "It is meant to be an experimentation lab aimed at pushing the envelope of technology and reinventing mobile experiences. Over the past year, we've been exploring different brands and platforms and we're excited to launch the Oreo Skies app into the marketplace as a result of the partnership."
Users point their Nokia Lumia devices at the sky, no matter what time of day or night, and explore a map of the stars and constellations. When they touch a star in a constellation, it twists open like an Oreo cookie to reveal a message left for one or more friends. Users can search the Oreo Skies' universe for specific stars, and friends can retrieve their message by following a compass in the upper-right corner of the display.
In addition to messages from friends, users can uncover messages from the Oreo brand. While browsing the skies, app users will periodically see shooting stars cross their screens, which carry special offers, recipes or incentives. Fans can also access celestial facts and video content direct from famed astrophysicist Dr. Robert Kirshner , Clowes Professor of Science at Harvard University.
The person who sends the most messages during a lunar cycle (every 30 days) will "own the moon" for the next lunar cycle and can place a special message on the moon for all users of the Oreo Skies universe to see. A leaderboard will track all users in real time.
Oreo fans that don't have a Nokia Lumia Windows smartphone can still participate in the skywriting through the global Oreo Facebook community of more than 31 million fans. Fans can message each other through a mobile or desktop version of the application on Facebook and follow the leaderboard.
Nokia teamed up with OREO in early 2012 as part of the Mondelez International Mobile Innovation Lab.
"At Nokia, we are dedicated to creating quality products that users can depend on," said Bryan Biniak, vice president of global partnerships and application development at Nokia. "As a global company with a history of innovation, we aim to delight users through a form of augmented reality unlike anything they've seen before. By creating an app on Nokia Lumia, Oreo is able to engage its consumers around the world in an innovative way, using the power of mobile."
The Oreo Skies app is currently available exclusively to Nokia Lumia Windows Phone users on both Nokia Lumia Windows Phone 7.x and Windows Phone 8 models. Users can download the Oreo Skies app directly to their phone by visiting the Windows Phone Store on their device.
Deerfield, Ill.-based Mondelez International is a world leader in chocolate, biscuits, gum, candy, coffee and powdered beverages. The company comprises the global snacking and food brands of the former Kraft Foods Inc. following the spinoff of its North American grocery operations in Oct. 2012. Its portfolio includes several billion-dollar brands such as Cadbury and Milka chocolate, Jacobs coffee, LU, Nabisco and Oreo biscuits, Tang powdered beverages and Trident gums.
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