Cambodia Beverage Company’s Country Manager Paul Popelier (L) and Smart Mobile CEO Thomas Hundt (R), launch the ‘Free Talk’ promotion with singer Aok Sokunkanha at the Coca-Cola bottling plant Monday, Nov. 19, 2012. Photograph: Stuart Alan Becker/Phnom Penh Post

Coca-cola and Smart Mobile have teamed up in a joint promotion to give away $1 million worth of prizes, including top-up minutes and 25 Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphones using numbers printed under bottle caps of Coca-Cola, Fanta and Sprite.

The promotion started on November 1 and ends January 15, 2013.

Cambodian singer Aok Sokunkanha has been appointed Coca-Cola’s brand ambassador and was on hand at the Coca-Cola bottling plant for the announcement yesterday afternoon.

“It’s a perfect fit with Coke and Smart and me, because we all work with the same target audience – youth,” Aok Sokunkanha said.

Smart Mobile CEO Thomas Hundt said the Coca-Cola partnership was extremely valuable.

“Coca-Cola is the most precious and famous brand in the world and it is putting us into an extremely positive light and position,” he said.

“We are opting to gain additional customers from this because for people drinking Coca-Cola and getting a 9-digit top-up number, they might buy a SIM card.”

“Top-ups are always in demand,” said Paul Popelier, country manager for Cambodia Beverage Company.

“The target group we aim for is the same as Smart Mobile, and they would be very interested to get a top up of a few dollars while enjoying a Coke,” Popelier said.

This is the second year of the program between Coca-Cola and Smart Mobile, and much bigger this year than it was last year.

“This program offers the consumer refreshment and staying connected with friends and family thanks to free mobile top-ups,” Popelier said. “We are passionate to bring our customers enjoyment, we are proud to have Aok Sokunkanha as a face of our campaign.”

Smart Mobile is the second-largest mobile operator in Cambodia, Hundt said, with 3.6 million users.

“We are very aggressive, we enlarged our coverage.  For this year’s ‘Free Talk’ program we have nearly tripled the amount of top-ups we gave away last year,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stuart Alan Becker at [email protected]