In a move to attract the next generation of soft drink consumers, Coca-Cola has developed a multi-million dollar campaign series focusing on social, digital and content marketing.
The campaign is aiming to develop a similar connection between today’s youth and the beverage brand as previous generations have had. The campaign will effectively see the replacement of the classic Coke summer TV commercial with strong push via digital and social channels. The campaign also features different coloured cans coming in at a volume of 250ml as opposed to the traditional 375ml.
“We realised we needed to up our game significantly in the innovation stakes,” Coca-Cola’s marketing manager Di Everett told The Australian.
“We usually spend 70 per cent of our budget on tried and true media, 20 per cent reapplying experiments and 10 per cent on true innovation.
“We really tried to tip that ratio. (Innovation) would be significantly higher than that in every medium.”
Coke hired three YouTube content creators to help execute the campaign, which is inclusive of seven online videos which aim to tap into teen culture through music, fashion and gaming and a masthead takeover which will unlock particular content once teens interact with it.
Coke will be employing photo image technology which in combination with smart phones, will be used to unlock content across several different media channels. In addition, signage in select shopping centres will be transformed into a game that can be played on a consumer’s smartphone once they photograph said signage.
In addition, select bus shelters will also be transformed to dispense cans of coke and graffiti artists have been employed to repaint billboards in Sydney and Melbourne on a daily basis.
Everett says that rather on focusing of sales volume, the campaign is more about the Coca-Cola brand forming a relationship with today's youth.
“We want teens to discover this world themselves,” Ms Everett said. “We wanted to be the group that has kept (being) iconic,” she said. “Otherwise we stop being what Coke has always been about.”
The new campaign has come about as part of Coca-Cola’s strategic review which was released late last month. The review highlighted a number of key strategies including.
- A joint campaign between The Coca-Cola Company and CCA in Australia and New Zealand with the #colouryoursummer campaign;
- The launching of Coke Life in Australia and New Zealand in April 2015;
- A US$500 million investment to accelerate Coca-Cola Amatil Indonesia’s (CCAI, a subsidiary of Coca-Cola Amatil) growth strategy in return for ordinary equity ownership interest of 29.4 percent.