SMBR Best Practice Example: “Share a Coke with…” Campaign
Brand: Coca Cola
Website example: http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/share-a-coke/share-a-coke.html
Even thou this campaign is not really new up to this date, it is the first article on Social Media Governance after SMBR summer holidays. And there is a reason for it – because this campaign followed us through all cities and countries in which the SMBR team spent its holidays. Worth an article, we thought.
What is the campaign about?
This campaign was launched in Spring 2013, across Europe with a really huge success. Instead of the coca cola logo, well known with for its strong image and brand heritage, country typical male and female names are printed on the bottles. The campaign is communicated in several channels: print, tv, and social media like Facebook or twitter.
Why is this campaign so successful?
The reason for it is simple: this campaign is the most integrated, innovative and intuitive campaign, I ever saw. It intertwines the different communication channels and especially the channels of social media, because it sets a stimulus to the customer to become and brand ambassador by itself.
This is what happens to the customer:
First, customer see the ad/product with different names, they try to check if one is showing a familiar name on it and get attracted. In case that the customer found additional familiar names, he tends to buy more/all of them, instead of priveleging one over the other. Think of the mother who buys coke for her kids, she won’t just choose the bottle with the name of her boy, but also the one with the name of her girl. Through this step, an strong emotional benefit is generated for the customer.
In reaction to buying decisions or printed ads, people start taking pictures of the ads, or the products. They send it across facebook or twitter to let the ones, whose names are placed on the bottle, know that the are thinking of them. Through this step, the so called self expressive customer benefit gets achieved – getting awareness, likes, shares, and so on.
Social Media Focus:
Coca Cola even made through the hashtag #shareacokewitth a smart bundling of the access to their real brand awareness and to the customer reactions on this campaign in social media. To me this is a very smart way to measure the social buzz and the success of the campaign.
My personal experience:
I really liked the idea of sharing…especially if you know somebody whose name is on the coke you will post a picture on Facebook or send it with what’s app. It happened already to me when I had a coke with “share a coke with your sister”. I sent her the picture and she felt quite happy for the reason of thinking of her and saying “hi”. Nearly as logical consequence, she felt also to have a coke and bought one right away. Also with other friends or relatives, I shared pictures and enjoyed it each time when I received one.
But there are also critical voices out there. I had a conversation with a good friend of mine, who seemed a little bit undecided about the sustainable depth of the campaign. Further there are several articles and blogs out there naming different countries in which people claim that certain names have been ignored.
So of course SMBR wants to know your opinion. Is this campaign a genius “2.0” campaign or is it complete nonsense which costs to much to produce?
SMBR Author: Alex
Social Media Brand Review 