Coca-Cola has been intensifying its Brand Campaign since the time James Quincey took over as CEO in the month of May, selling itself completely as ‘total beverage company’. The company, in its earnings calls and the investor presentations, has used the term to justify its moves beyond the Soda cult it has.
It definitely goes beyond its namesake Cola Brand. In its new Brand campaign, the company was seen shedding off its cult of being a soda and cola company brand which has been eager and competitive enough in the total Beverage functionality.
The Campaign which was aired during the NBC’s ‘Sunday Night Football’ broadcast, seeks to introduce a new set of patterns enough to rejuvenate the fantasies of re-introducing the beverage giant to the Americans as the company has completed decade-long re-franchising initiatives that return ownership of local bottlers to independent companies. To do that, the company sold off its capital-intensive manufacturing and distribution operations as it evolves into a company with a central focus on marketing and innovations.
The new campaign highlights
The new campaign seeks to depict its 68 independent U.S. Coca-Cola bottles as an integral part of the broader family of the company in order to develop deeper connections with the local communities. Ads have become running locally earlier this month with an aim to reorganize its local connections. The Sunday’s Night Football timing for the spot brings in more nationalized push into the urban population. The effort also included ads in the USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. The agencies who have been brought into the effort also include Partners & Spade for creativity, Perfect sense digital on digital and UM for media buying. The TV campaign has described the Coca-Cola company as making “more than the name suggests”. It has also shown other brands such as Honest Tea, Odwalla Juice, and Smartwater.
The Advertisement shows a Coke delivery driver whose name is Willie Mua who works for a bottler in Alaska and Jon Radtke, the Coca-Cola North America’s Hydrologist who has been made the in-charge of Company’s Water Sustainability Program. As per Stuart Kronauge, senior VP of Marketing and President of USA Operations for Coca-Cola, North America in a blog post, “The Increasingly local nature of our bottling system positions is to make an even bigger impact on the communities where live, work and play.”
He adds, “This is the perfect timing to reintroduce ourselves as a leading employer and supplier and communicate the breadth of who we are, what we stand for and what we make and sell.”
The campaign has been launched by the beverage giant amidst a time when the brand has been marred by controversies regarding the Health concerns and efforts by local governments to tax sugar-sweetened drinks. The carbonated drinks sell of the Coca-Cola has fallen by more than 0.7% in the last four weeks ending August 12, while Pepsi’s dropped by 7.2% according to Nielsen data cited by Wells Fargo.