Case Study: Coca-Cola
Case Study: Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola /
This article appeared in Contagous issue Thirty Two.
Contagous is an intelligence resource for the
global marketing communiy focusing on
non-tradiional media and emergng technologes
www.contagiousmagazine.com
CASE STUDY
coca-cola / The Social Network /
LATIN LEADERSHIP
The ability to produce highly creative work across every
conceivable touchpoint in markets as geographically and
culturally distinct as China and America has been especially
striking this past year. Nowhere, however, has the output been
quite so diverse, so consistently inventive as Latin America, a
fact not lost on Mildenhall: ‘The correlation between creative
success and commercial success has been proven in Latin
America. Over the last five years it’s been our most awarded
region, and the most consistent growth driver of volume and
profit for The Coca-Cola Company.'
The hit factory / In Ecuador, a shopping centre played host Coke’s flexible approach to working and shares it with a
to Cascada, a 16-metre interactive virtual Coke waterfall; wider audience of potential talent. The Lab’s role is to push
Nexus Interactive Arts designed the waterfall to ‘play’ with existing key partners to use art and technology to reimagine
passers-by, generating unique patterns and effects to match consumer experiences, as well as to engage with experts
their movements. Ogilvy Brasil’s Sprite Shower offered a beyond the marketing world. It might, for example, reach
more literal take on a similar theme. A giant Sprite dispenser out to Hollywood scriptwriters to ensure storytelling on new
was installed on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro to bring the content-driven platforms like Coca-Cola.tv and Coke FM is
idea of ‘refreshment’ to life in the wettest way possible, the best it can possibly be.
drenching those brave enough – or maybe just hot enough
– to push the lever. Agility and adaptability: structured play / The determina-
Sports and music, so often the focus of dreary spon- tion to inject new thinking into the heart of its marketing has
sorship initiatives, also benefit from the region’s apparent been matched by Coca-Cola Latin America’s rigour in estab-
willingness to leave no idea – however leftfield – unturned. lishing an internal system that allows it to thrive. ‘We have
In Argentina, Coke’s Cheering several secret weapons,' explains
Truck, conceived by Del Campo
Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, cap-
We are moving from Lamelas. ‘First, we work as one
integrated team across all our 35
728
tured the country’s passion for marketing communism – in countries. Our agencies are part
football, travelling from stadium of the team. We also work with a
Annual servings of
to stadium to record a million
which marketers were able horizon of 24 months stock of mar-
TCCC soft drinks
per capita, Mexico cheers, later played out to boost to push average quality keting materials. This gives us time
the national team during the to think and to dedicate resources
Copa America. marketing to consumers – to innovation. We have clear roles
In Colombia, music fans to marketing Darwinism, in and responsibilities among the dif-
downloaded tracks during a spe- ferent team members. The decision
cial concert, masterminded by which people will only see making process is transparent,
Ogilvy & Mather, Bogota, which
began with their favourite band
what they want to see. fast and we delegate as low as
we can in the organisation. Our
hoisted high above an adoring Javier Sánchez Lamelas quality standards are high. When
crowd. As the downloads racked you work in Coca-Cola "good" is
up, the band edged down, until they were finally in full sight not enough. We work in a powerful Marketing Factory. It’s a
on the stage. In another campaign, CCTV footage was scru- different model than the traditional way of working in a mar-
tinised not for crime but for moments that showed everyday keting department. We generate greater output, faster with
people at their best, with the spontaneous acts of kindness significantly less resources and rework.’
and altruism collated into a montage celebrating the good-
ness that is often overlooked. WORKING THE SYSTEM
Content 2020 was Coke’s way of seeding a more dynamic,
Open door policy / Javier Sánchez Lamelas is vp marketing, encompassing and adaptable approach to its communica-
TCCC Latin America; his delight in, and commitment to tions, but in Latin America the conditions have been created
delivering extraordinary value – in all its senses – is clear: to hothouse that process. Now, in line with the Liquid and
‘The thing I am most proud of is not a campaign, it is the way Linked approach, Coke has put the framework in place to
we work in Latin America to produce high quality marketing.’ ensure that success in one region can flow freely to others.
38 In its endeavour to attract the best ideas, Coke has
Annual servings of an open-door policy that invites any agency in the region Develop and disseminate / Guy Duncan, global group
TCCC soft drinks – except those working with PepsiCo brands – to submit creative director, Coca-Cola, cites the example of the infec-
per capita, China
scripts and concepts on an ad hoc basis. The result is a kind tiously popular Vending Machine spot, which dispensed
of creative pantry, stocked with tempting ideas that can be Coke and other treats to delighted students. ‘Taking that
pulled out when the time is right. spot forward, we evolved it into a broader philosophy that
Lamelas simply sees this as a pragmatic response to the we named Where Will Happiness Strike Next? That philoso-
evolution in his own market and beyond: ‘We are moving phy has gone beyond film into social media, and has also
from marketing Communism – in which marketers were able begun to shape global creative work. The new global pro-
to push average-quality marketing to consumers – to market- gramme led by Mexico is all about random acts of kindness
ing Darwinism in which people will only see what they want and extends to much more than a 30 second TVC.’
to see. In this scenario only high quality and highly adaptable In the Philippines, for example, the Coca-Cola brand
marketing will survive.’ applied the concept to a project that saw a group of Over-
seas Filipino Workers reunited with their families back home
Establishing the Innovation Lab / The increasing signifi- in time to celebrate Christmas together for the first time
cance of this came through when the company used this in years. It struck a huge, emotional chord throughout the
year’s Cannes Lions Festival to announce the Innovation region, and drew over a million YouTube hits in just three
Lab: not a physical space, but rather a term that conjures weeks.
‘Look at the
world a little
differently’
The Security Cameras clip
highlighted random acts
of kindness
Spending
split
Agency financial relationship
‘We’re still spending as much as ever on
70/20/10 advertising, but we’re very conscious
about the proportion we spend that is
consumer-facing and the proportion that
goes on agency fees. Our introduction of
RISK & value-based compensation has helped us
REWARD feel very confident that we are sharing
the risk of creativity with the agencies
that provide it, but also that we are
rewarding outstanding performance from
those agencies that deliver. Agencies have
the opportunity to make double the profit
than before we introduced it, but likewise
if their work isn’t performing, that profit
is at risk.' Jonathan Mildenhall
Metrics
Measuring success
VOLUME / The Coca-Cola Company has two key
BRAND LOVE quantitative measures that it uses to
measure performance. The first is brand
volume, described in terms of ‘Unit
Prevailing cases’, a unit of measurement equal to 24
mood
eight-ounce (237ml) servings of finished
HAPPINESS beverage. The second is Brand Love, a
metric considered as important as market
share to the firm, and of critical relevance
to Jonathan Mildenhall and team.
The company uses a proprietary
tracking tool to quantify Brand Love,
interviewing over a 400,000 customers
each year across more than 90 of its
worldwide markets. The data collected
is converted into a metric which can be
used to compare performance across
different brands, countries and over time.
According to Mildenhall, ‘No organisation
on the planet, other than perhaps
political parties, has more sophisticated
conversation measurement processes and
talent in-house.’
Freedom to create / It helps that Coke is less prescriptive More bang for your buck / In terms of production logistics, the
now than previously, working hard to ensure that its agency nature of the project demanded an entirely new, more col-
partners have plenty of scope to bring a local take to the laborative way of working, especially for Coke says Butler:
iconic brands they work with. ‘That doesn’t mean to say that ‘They couldn’t be control freaks. It meant not researching
anybody can do what they want on any of our global brands,’ things to the nth degree, not being able to do animatics, but
says Mildenhall. ‘We are very clear. We have a single brand being able to watch the idea grow organically – far more
growth strategy for all the brands, a single brand vision and liquid and linked.’
architecture, and a single creative idea. We’ve moved away David Campbell, a global creative director for TCCC,
from brand "propositions" as old-fashioned thinking. Instead sees that change as vital and inevitable. ‘Today’s culture
we just have bigger brand spaces, so Fanta is all about Play, demands a continual dialogue with consumers, meaning
Coke Zero is all about Possibilities and Coke is all about more content, more often to feed the conversation that is
Happiness.’ 24/7, always on. We have to be more efficient than we ever
have before with our production budgets to get the content
Beginnings not endings / Flexibility within those wide param-
eters is crucial, and Coke’s global marketing team is focused
that we need to feed that dialogue. It’s an efficiency play. We
have less and less production dollars and we’re expected to
1,404,801
on infusing it throughout the worldwide system. According do more for it: to do that we have to change the way we work.’ With a score over 1.4
million, Coca-Cola was
to Jackie Jantos, global creative As far as Jonathan Milden- the highest-rated of
director and self-confessed ‘hap- hall is concerned, there is simply the 25 sponsors at this
piness nerd’, it actually allows We’re in a different world nothing to lose: ‘So far everything year's Olympic Games in
their marketing to become much London. The MediaCom
more personal. ‘We used the
in terms of collaboration, we’ve done has led to new think-
ing, but none of what we did
Sport Olympics Tracker
scored the performance
expression “Don’t tell people a sharing ideas and in terms couldn’t have been reverse-engi- of each brand on volume
story, give people a story to tell,”’ neered. The worst case scenario of tweets, sentiment,
she explains. ‘We’ve worked hard
of the responsibilities of is that we’ll end up with traditional potential reach and
engagement.
to move from developing commu- brands as ‘the new Medicis’. creative content.’
nications about stories and telling There’s been no reverse-engi-
Stephen Butler, creative partner, Mother
stories to actually provoking real, neering required on the Olympics
tangible human experiences as campaign, which has had buy-in
part of everything we do. The stories people have to tell from over 100 markets, doubling the reach of the brand’s
coming out of those experiences are far more authentic than Beijing effort. The result in this case is unprecedented for
anything we could ever tell them.’ Coke in other ways too, says Butler: ‘Historically, Coke
would have signed and sealed everything a year before the
CONTENT-DRIVEN MARKETING event, but even on the eve of the Games we were still in
That thinking is very much in evidence in Move to the Beat, this open creative forum to come up with ideas, to be able 200
the Olympics campaign Coca-Cola has masterminded with
London-based agency Mother. With the 2012 event widely
to react to things and to feel like we were part of a present-
tense experience. And we created a toolbox of interesting
markets
hailed as the first ‘social’ Games, there was a clear opportu- components that could be adapted or taken in their single Coca-Cola is available
in over 200 markets
nity to create a campaign that not only appealed to a young bits and pieces, which still held the idea of celebrating the
worldwide. North Korea
audience well beyond sports fans, but could be amplified beat without that becoming fractured.’ and Cuba are the only
through participation and interaction with its various elements. hold-outs.
CONTENT 2020: COKE’S MARKETING API
Mix and match content / As a result, Move to the Beat is Taking that toolbox analogy a stage further, it’s not a huge
unlike anything Coke has ever attempted since it began leap of imagination to see Content 2020 as an API for Coca-
marketing around the Olympic Games in 1928. Mother Cola’s marketing, a move that begins to bring the brand into
worked with artist and music producer Mark Ronson who some pretty interesting company. Project Re:Brief may have
was tasked with creating an anthem for the Games. Sam- made an unexpected couple out of Google and Coke, but
pling the sounds created by an international range of young there are interesting parallels between these two commer-
Olympic hopefuls, documentary crew in tow, the track was cial titans, in terms of scope, scale and significance. ‘We
debuted at a one-off live event in East London that brought were the world’s first global networked organisation,’ sug-
Ronson’s athletes and thousands of athletically-inclined gests Mildenhall; ‘But I look at Google and think what can I
teens together for a showcase gig. This was the basis for learn from the way they network using technology, the way
a range of content specifically designed to resonate around they network their own human organisation… I just want us
Coke’s global markets, whatever their level of interest in the to be more dynamic, more innovative and more transparent.’
Games themselves. There’s a curiously ‘Benjamin Button’ aspect to this.
The focus on flexibility went further still, says Stephen As Google and its Silicon Valley siblings begin to wrestle
Butler, creative partner at Mother: ‘The commercial was shot with the logistical and cultural issues that go hand in hand
with green screen behind so that local markets would be with their rapid increase in size and maturity, The Coca-Cola
able to drop their own athletes into the action and become Company seems to be rolling back the years, rediscovering
part of the bigger story of the Beat.’ its mojo and reimagining itself with enviable confidence.
This sense of
empowerment is
inspired and endorsed
by ceo Muhtar
Kent’s ‘constructively
discontent’ approach
to all aspects of the
business
Catalysing change / It takes chutzpah to nail your colours to Size and scale are not incompatible with change and
the mast in the way Coke did by launching its manifesto in growth, rather they magnify the responsibilities and opportu-
Cannes last year, observes Butler. ‘It made it clear to every- nities for those willing to take them on. ‘We’re in a different
one that this is a Very Serious Edict: World cc’ed.’ world in terms of collaboration, sharing ideas and in terms
But there was method in the madness, says Milden- of the responsibilities of brands as "the new Medicis"', says
hall: ‘Building internal capabilities around Content 2020 Stephen Butler. ‘Brands are the new power seats; they have
could have taken me six or seven years – to make all of our the financial power to be able to finance and realise ideas
business units fully understand how to embrace it, how to and narratives, and they have an audience that they owe it to.’
practise it and how to manage their agencies on it. But the
creative industries responded brilliantly and now they’re
helping teach TCCC all around the world how to apply it.’
That’s not to say that the hard work is done. If you con-
sider the cultural and communications changes that were the
catalyst for Content 2020, it’s unlikely the years ahead are
going to be any less significant. Wendy Clark, Coke’s senior
vp of marketing, is clear-eyed about the future: ‘Liquid and
Linked represents our point of view on how to successfully
communicate in the current landscape. Key in that statement
is the word current. By definition, our Liquid & Linked agenda
must indeed be liquid and linked itself. Meaning it must be
fully adaptable and representative of the communications
landscape at any given time. The landscape is anything but
static. The mandate we see is that our marketing must be
every bit as dynamic as the marketplace.’
Challenge / Solutions /
For Coke, content drives conversation. Being receptive to ideas, whatever their
But a more rigorous approach to source, and being willing to collaborate
logistics and planning is essential to internally and externally to build and
maximise the content generated, both develop creative is crucial in helping
in terms of volume and its adaptability the brand pull off adaptable, timely
across markets. campaigns.
Results / Takeouts /
7% China
8% Pacific
180m 9% Russia
320m
The mini-documentaries released in China as part of the
Move to the Beat Olympics campaign racked up 320
million views in just two weeks.