Addicted to Coke

Can we just talk about how Coke has been killing it recently? I came across an article in AdWeek this week which talks about Diet Coke’s latest and greatest genius packaging launch. As a brand that has been around for a looooooooooooooong time, Coke needs to stay relevant and hip. What does packaging have to do with digital marketing? Everything. As most of you are aware, Coke recently launched its “Share a Coke” campaign where the company printed names on its Coke bottles. If you are on Instagram, I guarantee you saw at least one of your friends post a photo of a coke bottle with their name (or someone else’s name) on it. Genius.

Now, Coke has decided to print 2 million unique labels onto its coke bottles in Israel. Yes, 2 million unique designs. Coke used a special algorithm to create these designs. Pretty cool, right?



Not only are the bottle labels unique, but the company also designed unique billboards and sold t-shirts and other merchandise featuring your own specific bottle design.

If you watch the video in AdWeek’s article (http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/diet-coke-prints-2-million-unique-labels-latest-stroke-packaging-genius-161042), Coke shows some of the outcomes of the campaign:

· 2.1% increase in sales
· 3% increase in brand preference
· 2% increase in purchase intent

The video also features a girl taking a selfie with her bottle and various people posting pics on social media. I think it is very interesting to see big companies like Coke, who don’t have too much to post about on social sites like Instagram (they’ve only posted ~330 photos), utilize marketing campaigns like these to generate social buzz.

Uber: marketing strategies with a twist

Uber has been walking a fine line between marketing genius and absurdity.

At the end of last year, it ran a promotion in honor of National Cat Day, offering to shuttle kittens to your home or office for the 'low' price of $20. A couple of weeks ago, the company presented customers with the option to order a 'wedding on demand' as part of the its promotional campaign during Pride Weekend.

The wedding campaign was cute, but for me, it had Uber opportunism written all over it.  The question is, where do we draw the line on promotional creativity, particularity when it leverages symbolic community events as flagrantly and inappropriately as it did last month. 

All the big brands have been guilty of distasteful event appropriation at one point or another, but with the backdrop of price gouging accusations and ongoing conflicts with resident taxi associations, I wonder whether Uber might be pushing its reputational credentials a little too far.

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http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/26/uberwedding/

http://www.seattleweekly.com/promo/freestuff/949566-129/uber-kittens-cat-kitten-mail-national

Facebook Ads : The new revolution on Advertising

Facebook Ads is a cheap way for start ups to  increase awareness through advertising on Facebook.

Which are the main advantages of this new way of advertising?

First of all, Facebook ads allows you  to  target  potential customers and customize your marketing campaign for them. You can choose the  age group, locations, interests of the persons that will receive your ad.  

Second, you can choose to pay this advertisement if the people click on it (per click basis). This allows you to pay only for the advertisement of the people that are interested in your product/service.

Additionally you can interact with your customer through surveys, games, lotteries that will allow you to understand better the users. Facebook has more than 800 million active users this allows you to interact if you want with a large  population.

Finally, Facebook provides information about the performance of the ad,this allows you to make changes in order to improve the results on it during your marketing campaign.

With Facebook Ads, not only you promote your page when a user becomes a fan of your Facebook page. As each user has an incredible network, each time that he “likes” a webpage ,his friends will be able to see his actions in their New feeds. This creates a networked promotion, that will increase the probability to have new fans in this users network.

Facebook ads is an excellent way to increase awareness, multiply the number of fans of your Facebook page or redirect potential customers to your webpage. With its customizable budget, it is an excellent choice for start-ups to start a marketing campaign.

Lourdes Peirano

Cupcake Unicorns and a little company called Coca-Cola

Being consistently ranked as one of the most valuable and recognized brands in the world is no mean feat and when your product is sold in over 200 countries worldwide, it definitely makes sense for the company to invest highly in digital media so as to capture the biggest audience with a fraction of the cost it would take to market on-ground. 

Here are some of the recent marketing campaigns by Coke. Their messaging has always revolved around “sharing” and by making their softdrink share worthy on ground, they have made their campaigns share worthy online. 

1) A video that is naturally close to my heart given my Indian roots is the Happiness without Borders Video. An uplifting Coca-Cola film shows that what unites us is stronger than what sets us apart. High-tech vending machines installed in two popular shopping malls in Lahore, Pakistan and New Delhi, India – two cities separated by only 325 miles, but seemingly worlds apart due to decades of political tension – invited consumers to put their differences aside and share a simple moment over a Coke. 

2) Coke Can lets you twist and share 

3) Share-A-Coke campaign in Britain 

4) Recently Coke came up with a clever new way for students in Colombia to make friends. With the help of Leo Burnett, they designed a bottle called “The Friendly Twist” that can only be opened with the help of another person. Apart from an interesting mental challenge, the design also helped students to socialize without them even realizing it was happening. Watch the friendly twist campus bottles video here. 

Lastly check out Coke’s new digital marketing campaign: featuring 61 websites starting from ahh.com, that are focussed on engaging teens but clearly have a wide appeal. Note: these websites are highly addictive, my favourite is the cupcake unicorn!

While these campaigns may not always lead to a purchase it definitely creates a positive impression in the mind of consumers and the next time one wants to buy a softdrink, all things being equal, you’re more likely to opt for a Coke.