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The Flow: Coca-Cola Brief

Coca-Cola Experiential (Sensory) Marketing

Coca-Cola on Facebook (Case)

Questions to think upon!

SEO

Social Media Analytics

Company Brief

Invented in 1886 by a John Steith Pemberton, an American pharmacist. He soldhis patented discovery to Asa Griggs Candler, who established Coca-Cola Company.

Company’s Portfolio: More than 3000 Products which are sold under 500 BrandNames in 206 Countries. Revenues in 2010 were $30.9 Billion.

Joe Tripodi, the CMO, saw a new trend in the marketing communication during2010. This led to a new position in the company - Senior VP for IMC, and theyrealized that they had to focus on this new trend of social media. Wendy Clark wasappointed for that position.

The challenge was to scale globally while being locally relevant. “Creating effectivemarketing at a local level in the absence of global scale can lead to hugeinefficiencies.”

Michael Donnelly, Group Director, Worldwide Interactive Marketing, supportedWendy Clark in delivery of marketing messages via social channels to a globalaudience.

Company BriefMichael Donnelly led a team focused on the social media aspects of businessof what the industry called Paid, Owned, Earned, and Shared Media.

• Online Display Advertising, Paid Search and Site Sponsorship.Paid

• Packaging, Delivery Trucks, Websites owned and controlled by the firm.Owned

• Word-of-Mouth, Peer-to-Peer Message boards, Viral Advertising passed along between consumers.Earned

• Media shared with its retailer customers. e.g. Store Advertising and Point of Sale material.Shared

Diet Coke & Mentos

June 2006 – Stephen Voltz and Fritz Grobe posted a video onEepybird.com and share the video on a video sharing site called Revver.

Dubbed, “Experiment 137” or “ The Bellagio Fountains” – the videoshowed geysers made by dropping Mentos into bottles of Diet Coke.

The video went viral, being viewed 2 Million Times in just 9 Days - $10Million worth of publicity according to the estimates by Mentos.

While Mentos was quick to respond and offered to sponsor more suchtactics, Coke was initially cautious.

Later on, in July, Coke launched a user-generated content strategy, invitingconsumers to upload videos of their own making geysers in response tothe challenges designed by Coke.

Diet Coke & Mentos

August 2006 – Michael Donnelly joined TCCC and immediately formed apartnership with Voltz and Grobe.

Offered Google Video, second instalment of the geyser series – The ExtremeDiet Coke and Mentos Experiments: The Domino Effect

Started with 250 geysers, they went on to make such videos through 2010,setting World Records for activating 500 geysers in Cincinnati, 800geysers in Holland, 1300 geysers in Belgium, 2200 geysers in Germany.

As a result of this exposure, Mentos reported a sales increase of 15%(highest in its history) and Diet Coke saw a 5%-10% increase in sales ofits 2-liter bottle and 27% increase in traffic to coke.com

Blossoming of Social Media Diet Coke & Mentos video saw its success before social media started trending.

Twitter launched in July 2006. Facebook had only 10 million active usersworldwide, MySpace had 100 million members but lacked the ability to broadcastto a member’s entire network of friends. MySpace introduced instant messagingcapability in 2006 but it connected individuals, not networks.

2007 onwards, social media began to blossom (Exhibit 1). People could begin topost photos/videos, share and comment on the same. ‘The content-sharingmechanism on Facebook allowed people to see when their friends in their socialnetwork mentioned brands.’

November 2007 – Zuckerberg introduced ‘brand pages’, where companies couldcreate and manage their own page on Facebook.“The next 100 years are going to be different for advertisers, starting from today.For the past 100 years, media has been pushed to people, but now marketers aregoing to be a part of the conversation.”

The launch of ‘brand pages’ failed to attract required attention.

Blossoming of Social Media In August 2008, Zuckerberg tried again, announcing ‘engagement ads’,

units that invited users to become a “fan” of the brand, comment on an ador give a gift.

A Facebook executive explained that Facebook was solving the demand-creation side of the online advertising equation as opposed to thedemand-fulfilment side. Tools like ‘search ads, text links andperformance display ads’ helped in solving this issue.

But at the end of 2008, few brands had a presence on Facebook, and thosethat did attracted in total barely 1% of Facebook members.

Companies began using social media as a platform to advertise and connectwith customers. By 2009, companies began to experiment and started tooffer special discounts and vouchers if customers “liked” their page onFacebook.

Blossoming of Social MediaA study published at the end of 2010, found that out of a random sample of

Facebook members who had ‘liked’ a brand…

8%

18%

32%

46%

51%

55%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Consumer Packaged Goods

Car Brand

Sports Team

Fashion or Luxury Brand

Cause

Media or Entertainment Business

% of Members who 'liked'

Blossoming of Social MediaAmong the reasons customers gave for becoming a brand fan…

Overall, the effect following a brand on Facebook was that 36% of fanswanted to buy the brand’s products more.

26%

33%

33%

33%

39%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

Be Involved in Development of New Offers & Products

Take Part in Games and Contests

Get Exclusive Information

Receive Invitations to events related to Brand

Receive Advance Information on Future Products & Offers

Reasons to become a fan of a Brand

First Venture into Social Media - MyStarbucksIdea.com

• In March 2008, Starbucks created their site “MyStarbucksIdea.com” toallows users to submit suggestions to be voted on by Starbucksconsumers, and the most popular suggestions are highlighted andreviewed. Starbucks then took it a step further and added an “Ideas inAction” blog that gives updates to users on the status of ideas suggested.

• A total of 75,000 ideas were contributed, from which the company choseto implement 100, including complimentary Wi-Fi, the ability to buy afriend a beverage remotely, and splash sticks to block the hole in coffeecup lids.

• Next ‘social media push’ came, in January 2009, in the form of a Facebookpage, complemented by Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube. It used coupons,special offers, and discount promoted in stores, to encourage customersto “like” it on Facebook.

Starbucks and Social Media

Promotion of it’s New line of Products – Via & Pastries

• To promote its instant coffee product – Via, Starbucks leveraged Facebook infollowing ways:

Webisodes – through the story of a person on a road trip.

Photos – of and by Starbucks customers at their favourite locations.

Videos – stories of coffee harvesting techniques.

• To promote its new healthier line of pastries, Starbucks ran a promotion called'Free Pastry Day', where a customer who buys a handcrafted coffee gets a freepastry given they present a coupon posted online. As a result, Starbucks added200,000 new fans on its Facebook page.

• In October 2010, Starbucks launched Starbucks Digital Network. Along with freecomplimentary Wi-Fi, it partnered with Yahoo! to provide free premium news,entertainment and lifestyle content, including content local to the store. It alsopartnered other social media apps like FourSquare and LinkedIn.

Starbucks and Social Media

Staying True to the Community

• It’s been seen that for fans/customers of a brand, it’s largely about thedeals (coupons & discounts) and not as much as shared passion.

• While Starbucks’ brand presence and growth can mostly be attributed toits promotional activities, Coca-Cola’s brand presence and growth is moreof shared passion/love for the brand.

• In order to sustain the non-promotional relationship with its fans, Cokeneeded to ensure that it was having a real conversation with its millions offans (in 206 countries), rather than just broadcasting messages from onhigh.

• How can they leverage the power and reach of social media, and interact-engage with its fans on a “global scale with local relevance”?

Coke’s Brand Page

August 2008 – Dusty Sorg and Michael Jedrzejewski launched the unofficial Coca ColaFacebook page.

Decided to create a brand page on Facebook on a ‘whim’ and chose Coke because theyhad a bottle in their hand at that time. The page included discussion board, polls, fanphoto page, video sharing and a Wall on which comments, opinions etc.

The page had 1.9 million ‘fans’ within 4 months. At TCCC, Michael Donnelly tracked150 odd Coke fan pages, and noticed the rate of growth of Sorg and Jedrzejewski’spage.

Sorg and Jedrzejewski had very active and expressive ‘social graphs’, their network ofFB friends, who became the core of their fan base, which is why rapid growth of theirpage was seen (Exhibit 3).

Donnelly noted that their page was technically more sophisticated and professionalcompared to other fan pages due to which the popularity.

And as Facebook grew globally, Coke, being more developed globally, grew with it.

Coke’s Brand Page

Facebook called TCCC to inform them that the fan page was in violation of apolicy governing pages – unaffiliated individuals couldn’t host a brand page

TCCC had four options Ask Facebook to take down the page.

Transfer control to copyright owner.

Approach page owners and negotiate transfer.

Consent to have unaffiliated third party host and administer a page in it’s name andit could start it’s own “official” page.

After much deliberation and thinking, they decided that the best approachwould be to get to know Sorg and Jedrzejewski and meet with theinteractive marketing team.

Guiding principle – “Fans First” strategy; “less about us, more about them”

A must-think for Donnelly was ‘how would the brand ensure thatit was having a real conversation with its millions of fans, asopposed to broadcasting messages from on high?

“Our team has focussed on building the pipes to scale. We wantto communicate with individuals and local communities aroundthe world, as opposed to communicating on a global basis. Wewant to talk with people, not at them as most traditionaladvertising does.”

Coke’s Brand Page

Coke’s Brand Page

Currently,96.4+ Million Fans

#TasteTheFeeling is their latest campaign.

??

Questions to think upon!

Why Social Media?

Why Social Media?

Why do people become friends on Facebook?

Why do people share on Facebook?

What should Donnelly do in 2011 to leverage on the momentum

which got Coca-Cola 20 Million Fans?

Use Sensory (Experiential) Marketing& Target Customers at Hyperlocal Level

What should Donnelly do in 2011 to leverage on the momentum

which got Coca-Cola 20 Million Fans?

What Coca-Cola should be trying to accomplish with Facebook

platform under it?

Reach

Act

Convert

Engage

What Coca-Cola should be trying to accomplish with Facebook platform under it?

How?

User Generated Content ( Leading to Earned Media)

Interactive Campaigns ( Engage in a Real Conversation)

Hyperlocal Marketing (Owned Media on FB)

What can be learned from Coca-Cola’s success till date?

Leverage Social Media Channels to: Increase Earned Media, Promote ‘Owned Media’ for free, Engage with Customers & have Real ConversationsTarget Customers at their Local LevelsBe Responsive

Responsiveness : Coca-Cola

Responsiveness : Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola Social Media Strategy

Coca Cola is not a chain of stores providing service likeStarbucks. It cannot be completely community driven.

Coca Cola is limited by its interactions with customersthrough the product alone, while Starbucks interacts onmany levels. This limits the engagement TCCC can offer.

The tribe on Facebook are enthusiastic advocates of thebrand and it should be engaged on Facebook.

Coca-Cola Social Media Strategy

More Campaign Based &

Owned Media Based

Starbucks Social Media Strategy

(Highly Engaging & Personal)

Starbucks Social Media Strategy

(User Generated Content)

Starbucks Social Media Strategy

(User Generated Content)

Strategy:Starbucks created their site “My Starbucks Idea.” to allows users to submitsuggestions to be voted on by Starbucks consumers, and the most popularsuggestions are highlighted and reviewed. Starbucks then took it a stepfurther and added an “Ideas in Action” blog that gives updates to users onthe status of changes suggested.

Result:

By empowering their exceptionally web savvyconsumer, Starbucks strengthens their campaign toadd a personal touch to coffee.

Starbucks Social Media Strategy

(User Generated Content)

Strategy: Starbucks in the US launched a “Free Pastry Day” campaign, an event page on Facebook and there were

more than 600,000 confirmed ‘attendees’ to the event!

The news were spread all over Facebook through sharing and automatically triggered co-promotion forthe brand / event.

They started the promotion with their fans, At that time, Starbucks had about 3.6 million fans and thenews were automatically shared across the network, because the fans were excited.

Result:

Starbucks gave their fans a reason to follow them. Thereward? 2,00,000 new fans on its Facebook page.2,00,000 new prospective loyal customers.

Coca Cola & Starbucks FB Strategy

Owned by Starbucks

Is community driven.

Location based.

Rewards customer tribes.

Engages customers at a higher level.

Encourages customers to create contentfor marketing and operations.

Gratifies customers by implementingtheir ideas globally.

Owned by fans.

Is promotion driven with engagement built in. Engages consumers to share pictures, videos and opinion.

Cannot be location based promotion, and cannot offer discounts to consumers.

Consumer tribe trust this page because of its creators and their non association with Coca Cola.

Promotes the brand of Coca Cola through customer experiences.

Concern for Coca-ColaCoca-Cola: 96+ Million Fans Starbucks: 36+ Million Fans

Concern for Coca-Cola: Need to Learn & Refine

Search Engine Optimization

Focused on growing visibility in Organic Search Engine Results

More frequently a site appears on a search page, the morevisitors it will receive from the search engine’s users

Considers how search engines work, what people search for,actual search terms or keywords typed into the search engineand search engines preferred by users

Backlinks

SEO – Answering the BIG 4 Questions

SEO – Answering the BIG 4 Questions

SEO – Answering the BIG 4 Questions

Social Media Analytics

Primary Objective for Being on Social Media

Social Media Trends – EY Study

Challenges Faced on Social Media (1 being the most important)

Social Media Trends – EY Study

Challenges Faced during 2013 in Marketing the Brand on Social Media

Social Media Trends – EY Study

Social Media Trends – EY Study

Suzzane Vranica and Chad Turhane,”Mixing Diet Coke and Mentos Makes a Gusher ofPublicity.”Wall Street Journal, June 12,2006, via Factiva, accessed January 26, 2011.

Eepybird.com, FAQ http://www.eepybird.com/frequently-asked-questions/ , accessedJanuary 26,2011

Rob Hof, “Facebook Declares New Era for Advertising.” Bloomberg Businessweek,November06, 2007.

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2007/11/facebook_declares_new_era_for_advertising.html , accessed February 12, 2011

DDB Worldwide and OpenionWay Research, “Facebook and Brand.” October 11, 2010

Mark Walsh, “Starbucks Top 10 Million Facebook Fans,” Marketing Daily, July 14, 2010,http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/132008/starbucks-tops-10-million-facebook-fans.html , accessed January 31, 2011

References

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