Share an Idea with Coke

By guest writer Matt Shavikin

One of the world’s most famous brands has recently launched a campaign that has some very interesting implications on a number of levels.

Coca Cola are currently producing personalised bottles with 150 of Australia’s most popular names on them, teamed with the tag “Share a Coke with…” On the surface this seems like just another interesting gimmick, however with some deeper thought the idea is much more than that.

Coke is obviously looking to make buying their product a more involved, personal experience. Already you may have witnessed people rummaging through store fridges and displays looking for their names. Finding a bottle that knows your name also creates a completely different experience; no longer are you just drinking a Coke, you’re drinking your Coke.

A quick Internet search will find you a number of articles already written on the subject.

Even more interesting than this is the forums that often follow these articles with people projecting their prayers and demands into the World Wide Yonder to find a Coke with their name on it. “Do they have Jade?” they ask. “Share a Coke with Guinny or Guinevere? Pleaseeee… Even maybe Guin and my nickname is Guindy or Gwindy! So… Guinny, Guinevere, Guin, Guindy, Gwindy? PLEASEEE” writes another, desperate to feel included in Coke’s campaign.

Will they not buy Coke because they can’t find their name on a bottle, you would highly doubt it. But simply the fact that people are going to the effort to engage in these forums in their own time, of their own free will to discuss a simple beverage product, is borderline genius on Coke’s behalf.

The next step from this interaction is something that perhaps even the brains behind this campaign may not have even considered plausible. The infiltration into social media sites like Facebook is seemingly a phenomenal achievement in itself. Countless posts and photos have been shared all over the world unwittingly aiding the campaign by sharing their Coke experience with an audience on a level that normal advertising strategies could never achieve.

Photos posted with “Look I found yours today” captions are shared daily. One I saw recently was a post from one half of a couple who have been apart for a while. A trip to the supermarket resulted in a photo of ‘their’ Cokes next to each other, with the tag “Even Coke knows that we should be together”. Name another current ad campaign that encourages this level of emotional attachment, and remember we’re talking about a soft drink!

The measurement of the reach of this endeavour is equally as interesting as the campaign itself. How would Coke measure its success?

Will putting people’s names on their bottles promote a sudden, monumental rise in Coke sales? Or is this instead a very smart way of ensuring that Coca Cola’s domination of the beverage market continues for the foreseeable future?

People sharing their tags and photos over Facebook certainly assume that these interactions are personal and private, but one must think that where is some way for Coke to measure their penetration into this medium. How far does the ‘Eye of Zuckerberg’ extend and what information can the world’s biggest companies gain for the right price? That however is a much bigger topic for another day!

Finally, Coke’s competitors much be scratching their heads over how they should combat this campaign. For Coke it’s almost a boasting ‘chest puff’, showing their competitors that they can sell their product even without putting their brand on it. They have the power and pull in this campaign that not only allows them to continue selling their product at such a high rate but also engage their consumers in a way that most companies could only fantasise about.

It takes deep pockets and perhaps an even greater amount of faith to attempt a campaign with this sort of risk. Very few companies in our current environment could even dream of taking their name almost completely off their product as a marketing initiative and replace it with John, Luke, Lucy or Kate.

The idea itself seems fundamentally backwards!

Thankfully Coke has shown that there is still room and reward in our society for a great, original idea. So perhaps while you are sharing a Coke with someone, share an out of the box idea rather than same old things consumers have grown tired of witnessing.