In a major strategic shift globally, Coca Cola has unveiled a ‘One Brand’ marketing strategy that, for the first time, unites Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Light/Diet Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero, and Coca-Cola Life under the Coca-Cola brand positioning in one global creative campaign – ‘Taste the Feeling’, replacing its current brand positioning of ‘Open Happiness’.
“Every day, millions of people around the world reach for an ice cold Coca-Cola. The ‘One Brand’ approach will share the equity of Coca-Cola, across all Coca-Cola Trademark products, reinforcing our commitment to offer consumers choice with more clarity. This is a powerful investment behind all Coca-Cola products, showing how everyone can enjoy the specialness of an ice cold Coca-Cola, with or without calories, with or without caffeine,” said Marcos de Quinto, Chief Marketing Officer, The Coca-Cola Company, under whose leadership the new strategy is conceptualized and executed.
Essentially, the One Brand strategy unites all Coca-Cola products in a single messaging, leveraging the company’s greatest asset – the original Coca-Cola brand. Coca-Cola is also not doing so lightly, pulling all stops to create awareness around the shift. “More than ever, we recognize people want their Coca-Cola in different ways, but whichever one they want, they want a Coca-Cola brand with great taste and uplifting refreshment. Through the ‘One Brand’ strategy we will move away from multiple brand campaigns, to one single iconic brand campaign that celebrates both the product and the brand,” Mr Quinto explained.
The Big Push
Coca-Cola has structured a massive campaign to support the new positioning. The new campaign uses universal storytelling and everyday moments to connect with consumers around the world. ‘Taste the Feeling’ will roll out at various times across all markets globally in 2016 and will come to life through a number of elements, including 10 television commercials, over a 100 campaign images and a new visual identity system. The campaign will also include a new music anthem and audio signature. Coca-Cola is going all digital with shareable and customizable interactive experiences as well for the new messaging.
The creative campaign is anchored in the fundamentals of the Coca-Cola brand – the Spencerian script, the red disc and the iconic glass bottle – but with a modern take, featuring real moments with the product at center stage.
Coca-Cola gathered global creative minds from 10 different agencies to begin the development process, and ultimately the 10 commercials created for the campaign were produced by Mercado-McCann, Sra. Rushmore, Santo and Ogilvy & Mather New York. The spots give the viewer momentary, but intimate glimpses into everyday stories, feelings and experiences that people share while enjoying an ice-cold Coca-Cola. At the close of each commercial, the family of Coca-Cola trademark products unites as one under the red Coca-Cola disc.
The Ice-Cold Taste
“There is nothing like the taste of an ice-cold Coca-Cola. The campaign creative was designed to celebrate the notion that the simple pleasure of drinking an ice-cold Coca-Cola makes any moment more special. The universal moments and storytelling depicted in the campaign were created to resonate with our consumers globally. The same images and television creative will be seen around the world,” said Rodolfo Echeverria, Vice President, Global Creative, Connections & Digital, The Coca-Cola Company.
At launch, six of the 10 spots will be released. The lead television spot, ‘Anthem’, (Mercado-McCann) comes to life through a series of ordinary moments linked by a Coca-Cola, such as ice-skating with friends, a first date, a first kiss, and a first love. The spot will run in all markets in 2016.
The soundtrack to ‘Anthem’ is an original song created for the campaign and titled ‘Taste the Feeling’. Coca-Cola worked with Music Dealers to source the song. In select markets, the song features the voice of newcomer Conrad Sewell. The anthem includes a new audio signature, inspired by the sounds of the experience of enjoying a Coca-Cola – the pop of the cap, the fizz, and ultimately the sounds of enjoyment. The new audio signature will be used throughout the campaign.
The shareable and customizable interactive digital experience is made up of different GIF scenes that reflect feelings associated with drinking Coca-Cola set to the ‘Taste the Feeling’ anthem. The experience allows users to pull a GIF scene directly from the microsite, personalize the scene with real-time feelings, and share it on social platforms with #TasteTheFeeling.
