The Content Marketing Review (TCMR): Share a Coke

Brand

Coca Cola

Creator

Ogilvy Australia (agency)

Title

Share a Coke

CM Score (out of 100): 90 (quite successful)

Scale: 0-50 (unsuccessful); 51-70 (moderately successful); 71-90 (quite successful); 91-100 (superior).

Description

If you can believe it, back in 2011 the world’s most iconic soda brand was having an awareness problem in Australia. According to the company, fully 50% of teens and young adults hadn’t even tasted a Coke in the month before this effort launched.

In what was truly a bold move at the time, they decided to remove their most valuable asset — the ‘Coke’ name — from the flagship product and replace it with 150 of the most popular names of people in Australia.

They also created kiosks where people could add their own name, just in case Coke had missed someone, and Aussies waited in line for hours just for the privilege. I would imagine they also bought that can of Coke, don’t you think?

Why it works

This idea, which has since been duplicated around the world by other branches of the Coca-Cola family tree (you know what they say about imitation), was big and bold, but it was also simple.

It broke through and connected individually with people and made them feel special by leveraging the power of the Coca-Cola brand. It’s a classic example of showing rather than telling…and Coke was telling Australians: “We want to get to know you personally.”

In just three months, young adult consumption of Coke was up seven percent. It was working.

Why it works as content marketing

This was a big idea that had to be executed on a grand scale in order to be successful. But where there’s risk, there’s reward; and this was clearly more than just advertising. It was an idea that leveraged the power of the brand to make people feel good…something more brands should strive for.

It’s the kind of big thinking that can only be executed with content marketing. Running ads showing cans of Coke with people’s names on them wouldn’t have worked…it would have come off as egotistical. This clearly did not.

What can we learn?

There are many things we can learn here. One of the biggest is that localization is invaluable in strategy and concept development. While the idea has been imported across the globe since, it was designed to solve a specific problem the brand was having in Australia by allowing people to become the hero of the story…that’s why it worked.

Coke also did a nice job of extending the effort seemingly everywhere, creating interactive applications with electronic billboards, digital apps and websites that replicated the excitement online. They also kept the public involved by inviting them to vote for an additional 50 names that would be added, helping to keep the momentum going.

Perhaps the best part of this idea is that it can inspire smaller brands, who may not have millions to spend, to think big even if they can’t spend big.

What’s your brand’s most valuable asset? How can you share it with people to make them feel special? How can you make your audience the hero of the story?

Think big and, like Coke, you will be rewarded.

Beware marketing pollution

Photo credit: Galleryhip.com

Beyond simply not being a wise choice for your brand, I would argue that a lack of focus in your marketing messages (or content) is actually irresponsible.

As marketers we have a responsibility, not only to our brands but to the public, and we’ve been shirking this responsibility for decades.

This isn’t a rant about being deceitful or dishonest, although that certainly happens. This is a rant about simply putting stuff out there — any old stuff — in hopes that it will garner some attention. It doesn’t.

This is quite simply marketing pollution. And it needs to stop.

Now, I certainly understand that this isn’t as big and important an issue as global warming or world hunger…we should keep working on those as best we can. But, as marketers, we have a professional responsibility to stop polluting the airwaves, the Internet, the email boxes of the public, with messages we know aren’t any different from what’s already there.

And I don’t buy the argument that everything has been said or done before and that nothing is new. Tell that to Norman Rockwell. Tell that to Steven Spielberg. Tell it to Dr. Seuss.

If you’re legitimately trying to create new messages, perhaps even something that’s already been done but in a different way, I thank you. But if you’re a marketer who just shrugs his/her shoulders, winces and pushes the publish button when you know what you’ve just created is in no way unique, you’re part of the problem.

Suck it up, marketers. Because if we don’t fix this problem, someone else will.

We can already see the writing on the wall…machine learning, so-called formulas designed to create the best headline. People are waiting in line to create tools designed to replace us. And, if we keep pumping out the same old drivel, we’ll be helping them.

Of course, there is a silver lining here or at least a way out. But we have to be united.

We have to agree to hold each other accountable, because we’ve all done it. We’re all guilty of creating something we know is already out there just to meet a deadline or give a squeaky wheel what it wants. We simply can’t do that anymore.

If we do start holding each other accountable, constructively helping each other avoid what Doug Kessler called Crap, we can once again regain our rightful place doing more than just helping people, but inspiring them. Because that’s our calling.

We are marketers and we should be proud of that. But lately, that label is more a cone of shame. We look down when we say we work in marketing. No one can change that but us.

What can you do? Two things: call BS (constructively) when you see marketers or brands throwing the same old stuff out there; and take a look at your own work. Are you part of the problem? Are you working hard with every message to make it somehow unique and inspiring?

We can do this, marketers. We can.

Actually, we must.