Coca-Cola Journey

According to The New York Times Coca-Cola launched a revamped its website today that is  modeled after a consumer magazine. The online magazine will be called "Coca-Cola Journey" and will cover a range of topics including the environment, entertainment, health, and sports. As the article points out this change can be seen as a general movement towards brands as publishers creating content and having a digital team that acts more like a newspaper than a traditional marketing organization. This change represents a "growing interest among marketers in recasting their communications with consumers as storytelling rather than advertising."

In checking out the new site (which you can link to here) I found an article describing why they created Coca-Cola Journey. The entire article is worth a read but one part I found to be particlarly intresting was the description of the mission staement: "We want Coca-Cola Journey to be a place where thoughtful people indulge their curiosity about the world around them, engage in a civil discussion, and hopefully learn a little more about one of the world's best-known companies. For our part, we commit to be an open, transparent, and honest host and a thoughtful curator." At the core is this idea that brands have something to contribute to a "global dialogue." I'm very curious to see if consumers agree.

Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/12/business/media/coke-revamps-web-site-to-tell-its-story.html?hpw