Marketer of the Year: Coca-Cola

Not Too Big or Too Staid to Innovate, Beverage Giant Earns Top Honor

In its 125 years, Coca-Cola has been one of the world's most dependably good marketers. But there have been rougher times, as Joe Tripodi isn't afraid to admit.


"We honestly believe that the company, probably 10 years ago, lost its way through arrogance, hubris," said the chief marketing and commercial officer at Coca-Cola.

In mid-2007, as Mr. Tripodi was leaving a successful run at Allstate for the beverage giant, his challenges as outlined by Ad Age at the time included: reverse Coke's perception as a sluggish, hidebound marketer; find some consistency with its advertising -- and agencies; and reduce its dependence on its flagship drink.

Today, with a team of both relative newcomers and company veterans, including lieutenant Wendy Clark, senior VP-integrated marketing communications and capabilities, Coca-Cola is it again. It's a marketing model not just for mega multinationals looking to share best practices from around the world but also a case study for how upstart and mid-size brands, of which Coca-Cola has amassed many, can use creative stunts and strategic partnerships to get a lot done on a smaller budget.


And 2011 was a year for the record books.

Diet Coke bypassed Pepsi to become the country's No. 2 soda brand, under the leadership of Katie Bayne, president-general manager sparkling beverages, and Beatriz Perez, former CMO-Coca-Cola North America and the company's current chief sustainability officer. The company added not one, but two billion-dollar brands with Del Valle and Minute Maid Pulpy -- the latter, born in China, is the company's first billion-dollar brand to have launched in an emerging market. Coca-Cola topped Interbrand's most-valuable global brands list for the 12th year. And the company's flagship brand demonstrated that it only gets better with age: Coke is leading the company's growth, with volume up 3% worldwide year-to-date.

"Because of the scale and size of Coca-Cola, we have to have a culture that encourages us to share the learnings and failures, the good, the bad and the ugly," said Mr. Tripodi. "We've got a team of people around the world that is less concerned with getting credit and more concerned with getting behind a great idea."

There have been plenty of those this year. Fanta's volume is up 3% year-to-date on the heels of "Less Serious," a global campaign steered by Jonathan Mildenhall, VP-global advertising strategy and content, that runs in 190 countries. Minute Maid's quirky "Wake Up Your MMOJO" campaign from Doner took orange juice beyond the breakfast table, attracting men and young adults. Diet Coke teamed with StyleCaster, introduced a fashionable limited-edition can and launched new 15-second spots -- all part of a beefed-up marketing calendar, as Alison Lewis, senior-VP North America marketing, looks to keep the soda in its No. 2 slot.

And a new global teen-focused campaign, Coca-Cola Music, kicked off with "24hr Session," which saw Maroon 5 hole up in a London studio to create a new original song. Shay Drohan, senior-VP sparkling brands, has taken that campaign to more than 130 markets.

But that doesn't mean smaller brands have been forgotten. A tongue-in-cheek online video, from agency Zambezi, featured Jennifer Aniston promoting Smartwater and went viral, grabbing nearly 10 million views on YouTube. Fuze got a nod with its first TV campaign, handled by Amalgamated.

Coca-Cola's agencies include Wieden & Kennedy, which handles Coke and Diet Coke; Crispin Porter & Bogusky, which works on Coke Zero and Vitaminwater; and Ogilvy & Mather, which is working on the first ad push for Coca-Cola Freestyle and also handles Fanta.

Mr. Tripodi said the company has gotten sharper about how it thinks about its portfolio and portfolio management, a necessity given there's more than a dozen ready-to-drink non-alcoholic beverage categories it can play in. "We don't try to apply the same mass-marketing, big-brand model against [smaller brands]. Our whole thinking there is around doing things in an innovative and different way that takes a smaller budget and amplifies it," he said. "We're training our marketers and our community -- don't just say "I can't be successful with this small brand, because I don't have a big budget.' That's nonsense."

Coca-Cola is also innovating in food service, with the introduction of Coca-Cola Freestyle, which snagged its first major national accounts this year. Using micro-dosing technology, the next-generation soda fountain serves up 125 different flavors of soft drinks, flavored waters, sports drinks and lemonades and sends usage data, such as what flavors are most popular at what times of the day, to Coca-Cola headquarters.

The futuristic Freestyle is just one example of how Coca-Cola continues to set the agenda. The company attracted attention with its competitive review for a social-media listening agency. And it turned heads by taking a minority interest in Music Dealers to help it discover and license music from popular bands around the globe.

Most recently, the company teamed up with Leo Burnett to turn more than 1.4 billion Coke cans white to raise awareness and funding for the World Wildlife Fund's polar-bear conservation efforts. Pio Schunker, senior VP-integrated marketing platforms, is ensuring it's one of the company's most-integrated efforts ever.

All of these efforts are examples of the way the company is coalescing around management's 2020 Vision, which involves doubling system revenue and more than doubling servings to some 3 billion per day. It's a daunting goal, considering the company wants to do in just over 10 years what it took nearly 125 years to accomplish.

Mr. Tripodi says the company's ability to innovate the product, the packaging and consumer engagement are what will get Coca-Cola there. "It gives you some air cover, when you're doing well, to try things, be bold, be disruptive," he said. "It all ladders up to a thought process that says [our 2020 Vision] is very achievable, if we stay disciplined and focused."

Coca-Cola Launches Global 2012 Olympics Campaign With Mark Ronson

'Move to the Beat' Brings Together Music and Youth and Some Unusual Sounds From Athletes -- Squeaks, Grunts, Heartbeats

Coca-Cola launched its marketing campaign today for the London 2012 Olympics, introducing British music producer Mark Ronson as the creative linchpin of a global effort called "Move to the Beat" that will bring together music, youth and sport.

At an event held in the shadow of the new Olympic stadium in East London, Mr. Ronson was joined onstage by four of Coca-Cola's five up-and-coming athlete ambassadors.

Mr. Ronson is creating a music track that will tie together the whole marketing campaign around London 2012. He decided which Olympic events he thought created the most promising sounds, and Coca-Cola then found a young athlete from each of Mr. Ronson's chosen events and sports to join the campaign and work as an ambassador for 2012.

Claudia Navarro, Coca-Cola's Olympic marketing director, said that the 2012 campaign is very different from Coke's effort at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. She said, "Stories don't live in one specific media. Last time, we made a TV commercial. This time we are telling stories. And mobile has an incredibly different role -- it means there's an interface with our stories any time, anywhere."

Mother, London, is creating a global spot around a live performance of the song by Mr. Ronson and British singer Katy B this week in front of a select audience of 1,000, including students and the young athlete ambassadors.

Ms. Navarro said, "We are using London's rich culture and diversity as a backdrop. We've partnered with Mark Ronson because he's someone special -- he's a London icon who can bring our creative vision to life. The athletes only met for the first time yesterday, but already they are buddies and are tweeting each other."

The Olympic campaign is in keeping with Coke's efforts to reach young people with global music efforts.

Mr. Ronson has been travelling around the world, working closely with each of the five athletes to record them in training and pick up sounds to use in the new track. The song, still unnamed, will be released in March 2012.

The Olympic hopefuls -- all young, confident and cool in the media spotlight -- are from around the world: Darius Knight , 21, is a U.K. table-tennis player; Kseniya Vdovina, 24, is a Russian runner; David Oliver, 29, is a U.S. hurdler; and Dayyan Jaffer, 17, is an archer from Singapore. The fifth, 23-year-old Mexican taekwondo star Maria Espinoza, was absent.

Although Ms. Espinoza won a gold medal in Beijing, Ms. Navarro said, "The athletes weren't chosen because they are gold medal hopefuls. They were chosen because of their smiles, the way they talk and because they are the right fit for Coca-Cola."

At the launch event, Mr. Ronson played examples of sounds he has been collecting. As well as obvious noises like a table-tennis paddle and an arrow hitting its target, he has some more unusual ideas. Ms. Vdovina, for instance, obligingly ran on a treadmill until her heart was beating exactly 120 times per minute -- the tempo of the song -- so that the sound of her heart can be incorporated into the track.

Mr. Knight's grunts, which Mr. Ronson said reminded him of James Brown, and Ms. Espinoza's squeaks, also feature in the song. Coca-Cola is creating an hour-long documentary charting Mr. Ronson's global journey to create the track.

Ms. Navarro said "We will make [the documentary] available to all our markets and they will put it on TV, cinema, web, wherever."

As well as being released as a song, Mr. Ronson's work will provide the soundtrack for TV commercials, campaigns on mobile and other digital platforms, and Coca-Cola events during the Olympic Games.

"I was flattered to be asked," he said. "Coca-Cola has a great history of creating music, and everyone loves Coke. It was a no-brainer."

Talking about her inspiration when writing the song, Katy B said, "I thought about how I feel when I'm in London with friends and family, or at a festival or in the park."

Ms. Navarro said that the riots in London in August 2011 and Europe's ongoing financial crisis don't affect Coca-Cola's Olympic plans. "If anything it's made us more aware of the importance of the upbeat, optimistic message we are delivering," she said, "and the importance of the games in bringing people together."

Pepsi, Coke Raise Prices Ahead of July 4

Increases to Roll Out Across Packages, Brands to Combat Rising Commodity Costs


Consumers' favorite beverages are about to get a bit more expensive.

Heading into the July 4 holiday, both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola have said to expect price increases, as the companies try to offset higher commodity costs.

PepsiCo aims to raise prices of its soft drinks in the U.S. as the economy improves, CEO Indra Nooyi said. The company in April vowed to increase beverage prices from July 4 to offset higher commodity costs, with rival Coca-Cola also saying prices would increase 3% to 4% in the second half.

"The economy is better now than it was last year," Ms. Nooyi said in an interview on the sidelines of a consumer goods forum in Barcelona earlier this month. "Ultimately the test is going to be when unemployment rates come down. Everybody is focused on it."

Trade publication Beverage Digest reported that Coca-Cola's two biggest bottlers in the U.S. will be raising prices in the coming weeks, citing two retail customer pricing letters. One from Coca-Cola Refreshments stated that it will raise prices by 3% to 4% on July 31. Coke Consolidated says it will raise prices 3% to 5% in early July. In communicating with retail customers, both bottlers cited rising costs in ingredients, with Coke Consolidated saying that, in the last year, corn prices are up 110%, aluminum is up 24%, plastic is up 42% and crude oil is up 43%.

Coca-Cola Refreshments said that the "magnitude of this increase will vary across packages and brands."

New Pepsi Ad Tweaks Coke With Help From Santa

Cola Wars Now Involve Full-Calorie 'Blue Can' Brand as It Looks to 'Own the Summer'


PepsiCo is out with another ad tweaking the competition.
 



A new campaign, "Summer Time Is Pepsi Time," for the flagship Pepsi brand, takes a swipe at rival Coke with a little help from Santa Claus. It's the third effort from the company in the past year to attack a Coca-Cola brand. Late last summer a Pepsi Max spot took on Coke Zero, and in March Sierra Mist took aim at Sprite.

"Its right for Pepsi to play with this inside joke that in summer time everybody drinks Pepsi, even the most iconic Coke celebrity, which is Santa," said Massimo d'Amore, CEO-PepsiCo Beverages America, adding that the "spirit" of the campaign is closer to the Pepsi Max ads than to the comparative Sierra Mist ads. "Hyper-competition is always good to sell more soda. Consumers love the cola wars. Since we launched the Max campaign, Max is growing triple digits and Coke Zero is still growing, so everybody wins when we get into the cola wars."


The ads are also meant, in part, to silence critics and pacify bottlers who have complained that Pepsi hasn't paid enough attention to its full-calorie flagship brand. Measured media spending behind the brand has dwindled in recent years, falling to $154 million in 2010 from $193 million in 2006, according to Ad Age's Leading National Advertisers Report, while spending has also focused on Pepsi Max and, more recently, Diet Pepsi. Last year PepsiCo shifted its major sports sponsorships from Pepsi to Pepsi Max. And Diet Pepsi had a significant presence earlier this year at New York's Fashion Week, and is currently running a campaign featuring Sofia Vergara to promote its recently launched Skinny Can.

Compounding the situation, Diet Coke surpassed Pepsi as the country's No. 2 soda in 2010 behind brand Coke. In the wake of that news, PepsiCo said it would pump up spending behind its beverage brands by 30%.

"We have, in the last nine months, relaunched Max [and focused on] Diet, so it's normal now that we bring the action and excitement to the 'blue can,'" Mr. d'Amore said, referring to the flagship brand. "We have six months of really heavy communication weight on Pepsi, following the first six months which were heavy on Max and Diet. I can assure you the alignment with the bottlers and their morale [is good]. They're very satisfied now and looking for creative ways to activate the ['Summer Time is Pepsi Time'] campaign in their markets."

Mr. d'Amore added that on the heels of the summer campaign, activity around Fox's fall series "X Factor" will pick up. The Simon Cowell-created singing competition will focus on Pepsi, which could be a major boon for the brand if the show's success mirrors that of "American Idol" and its Coke sponsorship. "We're feeling very good about the next six months on Pepsi," Mr. d'Amore said.

In the "Summer Time" spot, which was created by Omnicom Group's TBWA/Chiat/Day and broke last night on ABC's "The Bachelorette," Santa parties on the beach to the 1990s hit "This Is How We Do It." When he goes to get a soda, the bartender serves up a Coke, but Santa turns it down and asks for a Pepsi. "Pepsi? But Mr. Claus, I thought you had a deal with ... you know," the bartender says. Santa replies, "I'm on vacation; I wanna have a little fun." A second spot is also on tap from TBWA. The campaign also includes radio, out-of-home and digital buys, as well as social-media elements. Today, for example, the "Naughty Elf" from Pepsi's TV spot will take over the brand's Twitter handle. And a Foursquare partnership will see consumers checking into hot summer locations, such as beaches.

"We want for Pepsi to own the summer," said Mr. d'Amore. "It's a time when people want to have fun, go on vacation. ... The entire blue system, whether the bottlers or ourselves, is committed to really owning the summer."
In addition to the campaign, this summer will also be a busy time for the newly restructured marketing teams at PepsiCo headquarters. As first reported by Ad Age, Pepsi created three new marketing roles amid the departure of Jill Beraud, chief marketing officer-PepsiCo Beverages America. Brad Jakeman, former exec VP-chief marketing officer at Activision Blizzard, has taken on the role of president-global enjoyment and chief creative officer. He will focus on trademark Pepsi, as well as the company's other soft-drink brands. Lorraine Hansen, a Kraft Foods alum, joined the company as senior VP-global hydration. And Simon Lowden moved from Pepsi International to become CMO of PepsiCo Beverages Co., which has responsibility for North American beverages excluding Gatorade and Tropicana.

Mr. d'Amore said the executives will be settling into their new roles in the next month, with Mr. Jakeman and Ms. Hansen expected to be "fully operational" by the end of July. Mr. d'Amore said that he believes the new structure, which introduces global roles, is the "right structure" for the company.

"It's the first time we really have a global brand management for the beverage business of PepsiCo," Mr. d'Amore explained. "This is the right of passage from a multi-regional to a global company. I think this is a huge enhancement to the way we run the beverage business around the world, and because of the new structure and quality of the people we appointed, we're not losing any focus on the U.S."

araabMUZIK "Burn" Documentary

Coca Cola brand Burn Energy Drink went behind the scenes with young producer araabMUZIK to document a typical day in the life of the MPC phenom and had him do a performance of his skills on the boards. The best part about the documentary was the last 3 minutes of the video, when araab got busy on the beat machine.

In December of 2010 Burn Energy Drink (A Coca-Cola Brand) put out a call for treatment submissions for a series of web films they were commissioning. Having recently worked with the young producer/MPC (Music Production Center) savant Araabmuzik, Director Alec Sutherland was inspired to create an installation that could be a real time, visual articulation of Araab’s actions on the MPC. The treatment for this idea was submitted and selected by Burn.


With a modest amount of money, Alec and his crew set forth to build a light setup that would converse instantly with Araab’s MPC. After a week of troubleshooting an array of computer software, DMX controllers, Midi converters, dimmer pads, electrical latency, power conversions, finally a pad on the MPC was pushed simultaneously lighting a single LED strip. 16 LED lights were custom wired and fabricated.

The shoot lasted two-days: the first spent documenting Araab in everyday situations accompanied by audio excerpts from a candid interview. The second was spent at Broadway Stages in Greenpoint Brooklyn, building the light setup and finally, recording Araab’s performance.

What you see of the performance is about three and half minutes of excerpts, taken from a nine minute set. Each set was shot on 4 cameras to enable a live, real time edit of Araab’s performance. The 16 lights are triggered exclusively by Araab’s actions on the MPC, the result being a precise visual translation of the music he’s creating.

This film has been completed for months but we were unable to release it do to Burn’s brand repositioning. Recently, they gave us a choice: release the film now on your own, or wait until August when Burn/Coca-Cola will put their corporate weight behind it. We have decided to release it now because we would like people to see it as something other than an advertisement. Thank you and we hope you enjoy.

At 125 Years Old, Coke's Story Is Still Being Written

After Winning Cola Wars, Company Aims to Double Revenue in 10 Years and Continue History of Breaking Marketing Ground

Coca-Cola has a rich history, 125 years filled with intrigue and innovation, success and failure. But, above all, Coke's story is a marketing story -- one that's still evolving.

The company tapped its first agency of record in 1906 and boasted an unheard of million dollar ad budget just five years later. Today it spends $2.9 billion globally on advertising across 206 markets. Celebrities and athletes were cast in ads as early as the turn of the century -- a tradition that continues. It's been at the forefront of testing new media formats, and today, Coca-Cola is both a brand and a medium.

In short, Coke has come a long way since its founding by John Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist in 1886. But what's remarkable is the foresight of those giants that built the brand: Asa Candler acknowledged the importance of branded merchandise and couponing in the late 1800s; Robert Woodruff envisioned Coca-Cola as a global brand in the 1920s; Steve Heyer declared that "Coca-Cola isn't a drink. It's an idea" and envisioned "an era of co-creation" in the earlier part of this decade.

So where does it go from here? Having moved well beyond the cola wars and determined to boldly double revenue in 10 years, Coke is positioning itself as the embodiment of happiness. "If you're able to own that emotion in people's mindspace, that's a very powerful thing," said Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer Joe Tripodi. "It's fertile ground. They'll look back and say it was a very smart place to own."

WINNING THE COLA WARS

So far, it's looking like a pretty good bet. Coca-Cola reported worldwide volume growth of 6% in the first quarter, with earnings jumping 18%. Volume at brand Coca-Cola grew 3% during the quarter. And in 2010, brand Coke maintained its No. 1 ranking, while Diet Coke surpassed Pepsi to become the No. 2 soft drink in the country, according to Beverage Digest. While Pepsi famously declared that it had won the cola wars amid the 1985 New Coke debacle, Coke is firmly on top now.

The company is coalescing around management's 2020 Vision, which involves doubling system revenue and more than doubling servings to some 3 billion per day. It's a daunting goal, considering it wants to do in 10 years what it took nearly 125 years to accomplish.

"We need to remain very humble and extremely hungry," said Mr. Tripodi. "We're not resting on our laurels for even one minute. The worst thing for companies is when you start believing your own press clippings."

Mr. Tripodi, however, said the idea of winning the cola wars doesn't provide the motivation it once did. "We believe strong competition makes us better and strong competitors make us better," he said. "The notion of the cola wars is less relevant. And that's not how we rally the troops here."

Still, he said he doesn't think "the story is written on cola yet." The company sees huge opportunities to grow colas, and the business as a whole, around the world in the next decade. Teen recruitment will be particularly important, as the company follows demographic trends.

"There was a time [a decade ago] when we walked away from teen recruitment and probably lost a generation of drinkers," Mr. Tripodi said. "Parts of the world lost confidence in cola as the engine of growth. We've gotten that back in a big way. …When you look at the massive opportunity in so many huge countries in the world, that's what energizes us and why we believe cola is still at its very early stages."

EXPERIMENTING WITH COUPONS, COLOR TV AND MENTOS

Key to success will be continuing to break new ground on the marketing front. In the fourth quarter, Mr. Tripodi says there will be a "big, powerful promotion" and "amplification of the brand as a media channel." He declined to comment further.

Early on, Coca-Cola was at the forefront of experimenting with new media channels and marketing concepts. In the 1880s, the brand was the first to introduce couponing and direct-mail campaigns, and in the early 1960s it was among the first to experiment with color TV ads. This decade it has dominated Facebook, ranking as the most-popular consumer brand, with nearly 26 million likes.

The emergence of Facebook, in particular, has led to a shift in thinking at the company. It now talks about earned, shared, owned and paid media. That shift has allowed the company to "step back and look at how we fully leverage the assets we have: the brand, properties, customer relations," said Mr. Tripodi. "We've always done paid well, but we've got to innovate on the edge. … These two new areas: earned and shared. That's where we see some dramatic growth."

It's taken some time for that conversation around earned and shared media to evolve, however. The company learned a lot from the Diet Coke-Mentos experiment in 2006, Mr. Tripodi said. A video of Mentos causing Diet Coke to shoot out of bottles in geysers went viral, leading to global news coverage. Originally the company felt the stunt didn't fit the brand's personality. But it got over it and embraced the coverage. As recently as last year, the company teamed up with the video's creators, EepyBird, for a Coke Zero Rocket Car.

Similarly, when a Coke fan page was flagged by Facebook in late 2008, the company engaged the page's owners, rather than playing hardball. In a stroke of social-media savvy, it flew the two fans to Atlanta and hashed out a plan for the page's future. At the time the page had about 3.3 million fans. Today it has nearly eight times that.

"Five, six, 10 years ago, I think the company was probably struggling with that," Mr. Tripodi said of embracing social media and the idea that the consumer, not the company, owns the brand. "When you're managing and stewarding the most valuable brand in the world, it's a challenge."


ENVISIONING A GLOBAL BRAND

Indeed, Coca-Cola has been rated the most valuable global brand by Interbrand for more than a decade. It's an accomplishment that would have made former president and chairman Mr. Woodruff proud. One of the first declarations made by Mr. Woodruff was that "Coca-Cola wasn't constrained by American geography," said Phil Mooney, VP-heritage communications. "He felt that Coca-Cola was a global brand. As early as 1926 he formed a group dedicated to creating a business in countries outside of the U.S. So, it's not surprising that in 1928 we had our first appearance at the Olympics in Amsterdam."

More than 80 years later, Coca-Cola is still sponsoring the Olympics, and it's more global than ever. Its newly refined global approach was on display in 2008 during the Beijing Olympics, when the company embarked on a 60-country marketing blitz. Commemorative packaging rolled out in 150 countries. The effort marked the introduction of a more global approach for the brand, which has trimmed its agency roster from 82 creative shops around the world to about 30 and now aims to create campaigns that can be distributed broadly.

For example, in 2009, Coke ditched "Coke Side of Life" for the more translatable "Open Happiness." That campaign touched nearly all of Coca-Cola's 206 markets in the first half of 2009. And the most recent Christmas campaign had 90 countries adopt the entire marketing program.

"The Olympics in Beijing really said to everybody that there are a lot of similarities around the world," said Mr. Tripodi. "We want to create a culture of people getting out of their silos. One of Coke's greatest advantages is its scale. But if you have 206 markets operating in silos, you de-scale the operation. That does not mean that everything you create in headquarters gets pushed around the world. [It just means] there are opportunities for that."

Mr. Tripodi said the company has adopted a process in which markets typically adopt 70% to 80% of a marketing program, meaning the remainder is customizable. "Everyone can find what I would consider to be the increasingly narrow differences between people," he said.

How Coke Is Targeting Black Consumers

July 1, 2009

Q&A With Yolanda White, Assistant VP of African-American Marketing

Coca-Cola re-established a dedicated African-American marketing group in 2006. The beverage giant has spent the past few years testing programs and conducting market research. And in the first half of this year, those efforts have come to fruition, with four new campaigns for the Dasani and Coca-Cola brands.

"Three years ago, we began to see new evidence of growing population, growing buying and growing power in income," said Yolanda White, assistant VP of African-American marketing. "We also saw significant [interest] in emerging categories, which made this consumer segment that much more viable for us as a company. So we really began to rebuild our strategic focus and realign our organizational capabilities to go after this consumer more holistically."


Ms. White's dedicated group of five people -- three additional employees are shared with the Hispanic-marketing division -- has a seemingly herculean task, working across the company's numerous billion-dollar brands. But Ms. White says the arrangement has its advantages. The group has a deep understanding of the demographic and is able to measure the total impact of African-American marketing efforts. Here, Ms. White also talks more about that, the impact President Barack Obama is having and why general-market agencies are ceasing to exist.

Ad Age: The four campaigns you've done so far this year focus on moms and teens. Why?

Ms. White: Among African-American consumers, African-American moms are the gatekeeper to the household. We over-index in single-family households, and so reaching Mom is critical. Teens really are the future of America, and African-American teens, in particular, have proven to be trendsetters in the U.S. Their ability to shape culture is really critical.

Ad Age: What sorts of results are you seeing from those campaigns?

Ms. White: We're really focused on building loyalty and building share. And our numbers are showing that we're doing both. We are the beverage leader among African-American consumers. And if you look at how we're performing vs. our competition, we are outperforming them on both volume and value. We're seeing our equity numbers grow. One of the things that's not as measurable but is really important is we're also seeing really strong organic integration of our brands in relevant African-American spaces.

Ad Age: What trends do you see in the African-American market?

Ms. White: All consumers right now are experiencing some struggles and strife. We are seeing some of that accelerating with the African-American consumer, in terms of the way that they have to manage time and how they have to manage their family, given that they're maintaining more jobs and balancing at home issues. ... The Obama effect is another trend we're seeing in the marketplace. That's helping African-Americans feel more in tune with Americans and more a part of American society. Another general trend that we are seeing is the fact that multicultural consumers are sharing more of their culture with the total population.

Ad Age: What agencies do you work with?

Ms. White: We work with several agencies. There's no dedicated agency, due to the complexity of managing multiple brands. We have African-American agencies, but we also have a plethora of other agencies that work on the business.

Ad Age: Do you think general-market shops can adequately speak to this demographic?


Ms. White: What is interesting is that, if you look at society today, there really is no general market. The market is really multicultural. It's really important for all agencies to have a pulse on the total population as it exists and on what's happening. If they don't, it really prohibits the agency's ability to be at the forefront of pop culture and to tap into relevant trends, which could have an impact on the long-term growth of a company.

Ad Age: Do you feel that African-American or multicultural shops bring something unique to the table?

Ms. White: Absolutely; we use them. All of our agencies bring something unique.

Ad Age: Are marketers taking the lead in encouraging agencies to diversify?

Ms. White: Diversity as a whole is important for the Coca-Cola Co. And as a company we're in full support of where the advertising-industry efforts are moving, in order to increase their diversity.





The Dean's Notes: Ms. White was my former supervisor at Coca-Cola North America and I learned a great deal from her. She is one of the few corporate executives who is in touch with young america and understands what they want, how they act, and how they consume.

Coca-Cola Pumps Up Fanta Ad Support Across 190 Countries

New Campaign Debuts in U.S. on 'American Idol'

Coca-Cola is throwing its considerable weight behind Fanta with a global campaign running in 190 countries.


The fruit-flavored carbonated soft drink runs in elite circles, as one of just four $10 billion brands in the Coca-Cola portfolio and the third brand to crack 2 billion cases. With an eye toward building the business even further, Fanta is launching the latest iteration of the "Less Serious" campaign globally. Previous "Less Serious" efforts ran regionally in markets including Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia.



"We're putting a substantial amount of resources on this around the world," said Joe Tripodi, chief marketing and commercial officer, during a webcast today that also featured a number of high-level Coca-Cola executives. "We've been very focused on trademark Coke over the last few years, and we want to make sure we're giving the same level of attention to our flavor business, whether that's Sprite or Fanta. That will become an increased focus for the company."


Mr. Tripodi declined to comment on the budget for the campaign. According to Kantar, Fanta spent just $4.1 million in the U.S. last year, down from $7.4 million in 2006. That's significantly less than other similarly sized brands in the Coca-Cola portfolio.

The campaign, which is being touted as the brand's largest and most unified, debuts in the U.S. with a TV spot, "Chase," on "American Idol" tomorrow night. Spots will also run on MTV and BET. Print, out-of-home, in-store and digital elements will also be included. And a new global website replaces myriad regional sites. Ogilvy & Mather, New York, led the effort, working with the agency's Sao Paulo and Paris offices.

Teens and moms are key targets for the brand, leading executives to select a family-friendly animated creative concept. (Coca-Cola has been increasingly focused on teen consumers.) Fanta worked with Psyop, the same animation shop behind Coca-Cola's "Happiness Factory," to create a cast of multicultural animated characters meant to be between the ages of 18 to 20.

Jonathan Mildenhall, VP-global advertising strategy and content, said that in creating the characters the brand was careful not to make them too young. "It's important for us to add the right kind of gravitas and social cool, so [Fanta] appeals to late teenagers," he said. "We want 16-year-olds, 17-year-olds to feel very cool when they pick up a bottle of Fanta."

Already, the brand is particularly popular with multicultural teens, said Caren Pasquale-Seckler, VP-flavor brands portfolio for Coca-Cola North America. Multicultural teens are drinking Fanta two times more than the average teen and, in the U.S., two-thirds of the brand's volume is attributed to multicultural teens.

"[These multicultural characters] identify strongly with the U.S. consumer and, in particular, the teen consumer," Ms. Pasquale-Seckler said. "The face of the nation is changing and the general population is embracing diversity more than they ever have before."

There's latent equity in this brand," Ms. Pasquale-Seckler continued. "We want to take advantage of that, put it on a big stage and do things like launch this campaign on 'American Idol.'"

Coca-Cola Wraps Largest Social-Media Project Ever

Global Program with Local Activation, 'Expedition 206,' Comes to Close


NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- More than 275,000 miles, 186 countries and 365 days after embarking on Expedition 206 -- Coca-Cola's largest social-media project ever -- the company's three "happiness ambassadors" have completed their journey.


On Jan. 1, 2010, armed with laptops, video cameras, smartphones and plenty of other gadgetry, the three 20-somethings set off to visit 206 countries and territories where Coca-Cola is sold in order to document for the masses their search for happiness. They arrived back in Atlanta at the World of Coca-Cola Dec. 29, 2010, just before the dawn of the New Year. Their journey, tracked at Expedition206.com, as well as through Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, has racked up 650 million media impressions around the globe and engaged billions of people.


In China, for example, instant-messaging service QQ received a billion visits related to Expedition 206, said Anne Carelli, senior communications manager-digital communications at Coca-Cola. Ten billion virtual stamps, created by the ambassadors in each country using Haibao, the mascot for the 2010 World Expo, were also traded through QQ.

"We have been extremely pleased with the success it's had in the different markets," Ms. Carelli said, noting that the program created more visibility for the brand in key markets like China. "It's really provided a platform for the different markets to activate as they see fit."

The program -- conceptualized as a global effort that would be coordinated by a team in Atlanta but actively managed by individual markets -- forced many local markets into the digital and social-media space for the first time. It also required increased collaboration among the communications, public relations and marketing teams, something Ms. Carelli says will be instructive for future programs. And it furthered Coca-Cola's goal of creating global programs that are locally relevant.

"It was intriguing how each market went about it in their own special way," said Tony Martin, one of the ambassadors. "We never knew what to expect. In some places we'd go eat with a family. Then, in the next place we'd hang out with a local, legendary surfer. Or we'd show up at an airport and there would be these local traditions."

The group also made appearances at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Canada, the FIFA World Cup in South Africa and the Shanghai 2010 World Expo in China.

The campaign bolstered Coke's Facebook presences in markets like New Zealand, and in other countries -- such as Argentina, Ukraine and Uruguay -- local teams connected with influential bloggers as a means of promoting the program. Still, there were areas where the program didn't take off. On Twitter, the main handle boasts only about 1,800 followers. Coca-Cola execs stressed that the measure of success was based more on local-level engagement, pointing out that the Dominican Republic and other countries started their own Twitter handles specifically to document the visit.

"We made the conscious decision at the beginning that this was a local activation," Ms. Carelli said. "Equally as important were the relationships formed with influential bloggers and communities. We tapped into [areas] where we might not have had as strong of a presence previously. ... It pushed a lot of markets to start [new] relationships."

The ambassadors also arrived with built in fan bases, having competed for the opportunity to be part of the program. Coca-Cola reached out to the likes of Lonely Planet, as well as its own agencies, including Ignition, an experiential marketing firm, and WWWINS, its digital agency in China, asking for recommendations. It received about 60 candidates that it then narrowed down to 18 individuals who were brought to Atlanta for interviews. From here, nine candidates, three groups of three, were ultimately tasked with promoting themselves to consumers, who determined the winners in an online vote.

Ms. Carelli said the program has exceeded expectations. Just the fact that the year-long trip was completed with the same three ambassadors, Mr. Martin, Kelly Ferris and Antonio Santiago, is an accomplishment, she joked. But that doesn't mean there weren't snafus along the way.

The trio made it to just 186 countries, not the 206 the company had planned on. Part of that was due to security concerns in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. And part was due to logistics. Each ambassador required about 85 Visas and numerous passports, which caused the group to miss some countries. Mother Nature was also a challenge. An August trip to Bermuda was rescheduled for December, thanks to a hurricane. And Christmas was spent in Ireland when snow stranded the ambassadors last week.

MARKET VISION - "A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING"

This is a reel of Market Vision. A multi-cultural agency based out of San Antonio, Texas. Great Company, Great People, Great Experience.

CLICK HERE :: MARKET VISION

BIG CITY DREAMS MAY NOT EQUAL BIG ENDORSEMENT DOLLARS

COCA-COLA LIGHT: LEMON PEEL

COKE QUEST COMMERCIAL :: WORLD CUP SOCCER

Coke Quest from Paranoid US on Vimeo.

COCA-COLA HAPPINESS FACTORY BY WIEDEN + KENNEDY

Coke's New World Cup Goal: Mainstream U.S. Consumers (via Brandweek.com)

Soccer may trail basketball and baseball in popularity in the U.S., but Coca-Cola sees that changing fast. Coca-Cola has been a major advertiser in the FIFA World Cup for decades, but this is the first time the company is targeting a more mainstream type of consumer, as opposed to Hispanics in the U.S., said Reinaldo Padua, assistant vice president of Hispanic marketing for North America. The campaign, which includes global TV, documentary and interactive components, comes as young American consumers take a more active interest in the sport—an interest that the company believes will extend to watching the games as well. Padua discussed what Coca-Cola is doing that’s new in the World Cup this year and how the company’s “Open Happiness” theme is a good fit for the sponsorship.

Brandweek: Coca-Cola has been an official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup since 1978. What is different about the marketing campaign this year?

Reinaldo Padua: In the U.S., we’ve taken the activation of the World Cup across the entire U.S. market. Our efforts in the past were usually more concentrated in the Hispanic market. They are core fans of soccer. But with the growth in the practice and popularity of this sport, we are at that tipping point where during the weekends and in the summer you see soccer moms taking kids to practices and games. We’re looking for how to fuel that active living among their kids, and the company has decided to leverage that trend and take this to [a more general] market.

BW: But doesn’t soccer trail other sports, like basketball and football, in popularity in the U.S.?

RP: Soccer is one of the top three most practiced sports among youths in the U.S. [Specifically] it’s the most practiced sport among kids ages 8 to12 years old. So, what you see in that trend is that there is a natural passion and connection with this sport across the entire market, not only among Hispanic consumers.

BW: Is Coca-Cola upping its investment in the World Cup this year?

RP: We keep increasing our investment, and this is reflected in the fact that this is [targeting] the entire U.S. market. Our resources around the activation of this program in the U.S. are going to be like never before. In packaging, it’s also going to be across multiple brands, [namely] Powerade, Coke Zero and Fanta, and our presence in media will include these brands too. In addition to that, one of the events that is very important to our sponsorship of the World Cup is our Trophy Tour. That’s similar to the torch relay in the Olympics. We take that solid gold trophy around the world, across most of the countries in Africa, across a total of 86 countries in 225 days, and it builds on that excitement and anticipation for [the tournament in] June and July.

BW: The global TV spot for the World Cup, “History of Celebration,” builds on Coca-Cola’s current “Open Happiness” campaign. Why expand on the existing marketing campaign, and why is that a good fit?

RP: There is a natural connection between our “Open Happiness” campaign and the World Cup. The World Cup theme is about celebrating soccer and the [winning of the trophy]. It’s an incredible experience that brings together all the best soccer teams in the world for one month, and it doesn’t matter about the differences in their culture, language and religion. Everyone gets together for those 30 days, and we share the same rules, the same field and we all cheer for our teams in a very competitive, but at the same time, very happy way…When you think of the globalness of the FIFA World Cup, [consider the fact that] the most important sports event on air—the last World Cup, held in Germany—had a total of 26 billion nonunique visitors. When you compare that in terms of all the [other major sports] events, like the Super Bowl, you are talking about 250 Super Bowls—one right after the other—during one month. So, when you think of the globalness of our brand and the presence of Coca-Cola in all of those countries and its awareness and connection with happiness, it just makes sense for Coca-Cola to be the brand that brings the World Cup and the celebration of that event around the world.

BW: How are you integrating digital and interactive in this campaign?

RP: We have a global celebration campaign. It’s called “The Longest Celebration Contest.” It’s an opportunity for fans around the world to upload their [soccer] goal celebrations to a continuous stream of videos [from consumers in countries] around the world.

BW: Can you give us one example of a really successful Hispanic marketing campaign launched by Coca-Cola?

RP: One that has been very successful is called “The Power Is in Your Hands” for Powerade. [The campaign ran in print, radio and in-store, and can currently be seen in out-of-home ads.] It [stars] Mexican football goalkeeper Guillermo “Memo” Ochoa, and it’s a campaign that’s been in the market over the last year. It’s [about reminding] consumers that the power is in their hands. It plays a bit on the idea of Ochoa, as a goalkeeper, having the power to decide the future and outcome of the game. It’s telling Hispanics that they have the power to influence their day to day, and it positions Powerade as that leverage that gives you hydration and the energy to keep going. It’s been very successful because it connects with consumers in a more emotional way, to the point where we’ve been able to achieve leadership in the sports drink category during different parts of the year in the U.S. retail channel.

NEW COKE: ONE OF MARKETING'S BIGGEST MISTAKES TURNS 25

BURGER KING CONTROVERSY WITH MOCK MIMOSA

Burger King's test of a non-alcoholic mimosa as part of a new "brunch" menu is drawing concern from child advocates and other watchdog groups.

In select markets in Florida and Massachusetts, BK is advertising the availability of brunch featuring specialty items like a ciabatta breakfast sandwich—and a variation of the traditional brunch drink. In this case, the faux mimosa is a mixture of orange juice and Sprite, instead of the usual O.J. and champagne.

"This normalizes to children at a young age the idea that drinking is fine to do, and something we do everywhere," said Michele Simon, research and policy director for the Marin Institute, a watchdog group.

Susan Linn, director of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, said she would have less of a problem if the mimosa contained actual alcohol, because at least then it would be aimed at adults.

"It's inappropriate for a family restaurant to be serving drinks that mimic the act of consuming alcoholic beverages. It serves as a message to kids that if you want to feel grown up, you should drink alcohol," she said.

Simon, from the Marin Institute, cited BK’s decision earlier this year to sell beer at a South Beach, Fla., location and wondered if the faux mimosa is another step toward the chain offering alcoholic drinks in the future.

BK did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the increasingly overheated breakfast daypart, BK's appropriation of "brunch" lends a more upscale positioning to its marketing. The ciabatta sandwich contains scrambled egg, cheese, tomato, ham and bacon with smoky tomato sauce and is priced at $2.99. The special brunch menu, which includes the $1.99 mimosa, is available daily until 10:30 a.m., the same time as other BK breakfast items. (The brunch menu also includes BK’s signature Whopper burger.)

LANE BRYANT: AN AMERICAN IDOL

Lane Bryant's controversial new lingerie ad has been given an airdate on Fox, April 28, during the closing minutes of the 9 p.m. edition of American Idol.

The women's clothing manufacturer had claimed both Fox and ABC objected to the commercial's content.

Though the commercial will now air on Idol, both client and media still seem peeved. LB has accused the networks of bias against large-size women—and the networks have denied such claims, accusing LB of trying to milk a non-story for publicity purposes.

LB took its battle to the blogosphere Tuesday with a rather testy entry on its Inside Curve venue, lambasting Fox and ABC for resisting efforts to place the ad in shows including Dancing With the Stars and Idol.

LB complained that it was being treated differently from Victoria's Secret, which has aired spots on both networks. The marketer essentially accused the networks of having a bias against larger women, with presumably more to show when wearing lingerie compared to the "waif-like" models in the VS ads, which LB said "run regularly" on both nets. "There's no difference other than they're bigger girls," the LB representative said.

The blog entry and ad were posted Tuesday and taken down Wednesday due to what an LB rep said was a "legal trademark issue." Both are now available online. "It had nothing to do with the content" of either the blog item or the ad, the rep said of their temporary removal.

The rep said the company was still steamed at the networks, given that the marketer hoped to break the spot in this week's shows. "[We're] disappointed that Fox rejected the ad three times before they finally agreed to air it next week," the LB rep said.

Lane Bryant's controversial new lingerie ad has been given an airdate on Fox, April 28, during the closing minutes of the 9 p.m. edition of American Idol.

The women's clothing manufacturer had claimed both Fox and ABC objected to the commercial's content.

Though the commercial will now air on Idol, both client and media still seem peeved. LB has accused the networks of bias against large-size women—and the networks have denied such claims, accusing LB of trying to milk a non-story for publicity purposes.

LB took its battle to the blogosphere Tuesday with a rather testy entry on its Inside Curve venue, lambasting Fox and ABC for resisting efforts to place the ad in shows including Dancing With the Stars and Idol.

LB complained that it was being treated differently from Victoria's Secret, which has aired spots on both networks. The marketer essentially accused the networks of having a bias against larger women, with presumably more to show when wearing lingerie compared to the "waif-like" models in the VS ads, which LB said "run regularly" on both nets. "There's no difference other than they're bigger girls," the LB representative said.

The blog entry and ad were posted Tuesday and taken down Wednesday due to what an LB rep said was a "legal trademark issue." Both are now available online. "It had nothing to do with the content" of either the blog item or the ad, the rep said of their temporary removal.

The rep said the company was still steamed at the networks, given that the marketer hoped to break the spot in this week's shows. "[We're] disappointed that Fox rejected the ad three times before they finally agreed to air it next week," the LB rep said.

Fox sources countered, however, that it frequently asks marketers to re-edit spots just as it did with Bryant as well as with Victoria's Secret ads that have aired. The sources said LB's refusal to comply with requested changes caused the delay that prevented it from airing this week. "Following Lane Bryant's refusal to make requested edits, Fox agreed to air the unedited ad during the last 10 minutes" of next Wednesday's Idol program at 9 p.m., a source said.

The Fox sources said the VS ad that aired this week on Idol complied with requested edits "and was specifically produced to meet Fox's standards for American Idol."

Fox sources also pointed to the fact that they have aired Playtex underwear ads for "full-figured women" on American Idol to counter LB's accusation that the network has a bias against plus-sized females. The sources also stressed that the VS ads air only on the 9 p.m. Idol programs, not at 8 p.m.

In a statement, ABC said of LB: "Their statements are not true. The ad was accepted. Lane Bryant was treated absolutely no differently than any advertiser for the same product. We were willing to accommodate them, but they chose to seek publicity instead."

There is no immediate word on when the ad will air on ABC.

COCA-COLA LIGHT x KARL LAGERFELD = $81 SOFT DRINK

Designer Karl Lagerfeld is the man behind -- and on the label for -- a limited-edition run of Coca-Cola Light in France.

Women’s Wear Daily reports that the ponytailed fashion force shot the new ad campaign for the global soda giant, which features two of his favorite models, Coco Rocha and Baptiste Giacobini, and also designed the soda’s white bottle, which boasts a hot pink aluminum cap and a simple black graphic of Lagerfeld’s famous silhouette (instantly recognizable by the high collar, pointy boots and trademark ponytail).

The ads will debut in France on April 28 in magazines and on billboards, including across Galeries Lafayette which, along with trendsetting Parisian boutique Colette, will sell a limited-edition boxed version of the bottle (with a matching bottle opener), for 47 euros, or $64.

Lagerfeld, a devoted fan of consumables with zero calories, told WWD that he likes to drink Coca-Cola Lite in “a delicate crystal goblet” to accentuate the taste. Naturally.

In the ad, a coquettish Rocha sips her no-calorie soda pop out of Lagerfeld’s favorite Lalique glass, while clad in a cute black shorts, a white button-down and fingerless gloves -- all from the designer’s namesake Spring collection.

POWERade NAMES MOTHER AS FIRST GLOBAL AGENCY

Mother, New York, has been tapped to handle global ad work for Coca-Cola's Powerade brand, without a review. A Coca-Cola spokesman said Mother will be Powerade's first global agency. Sapient has also been tapped to handle digital work. The appointments do not impact any of Powerade's local agency relationships.

The assignment is an expansion of the independent agency's relationship with Coca-Cola; Mother, New York, has previously done work for Coke's Full Throttle energy-drink brand, while Mother's London headquarters office has done a range of work including TV spots as part of brand Coca-Cola's Open Happiness campaign, sponsorship events and broadcast work for the Diet Coke brand.

"Working with Mother simply extends the relationship that we already have with them in Latin America and Great Britain," the Coca-Cola spokesman said.

The move comes as the beverage category has declined for a second consecutive year, with fortified waters and sports drinks experiencing steep volume declines.

How much Coca-Cola devotes to marketing Powerade internationally isn't clear, but in the U.S. that figure was just a fraction of the beverage giant's $400 million domestic ad budget. The company spent about $10 million to market Powerade in 2009, according to Kantar Media data. New York-based Ammirati handles Powerade in the U.S.

Powerade spends far less than rival Gatorade, which spent more than $100 million last year on U.S. marketing, though it doesn't seem to be paying off. PepsiCo's Gatorade, which has attempted to reposition itself as "G" with a splashy campaign, is helping to lead the decline in the sports-drink category. Volume fell 15.5% at Gatorade, the largest player in the category, compared with a 1% drop at the smaller Powerade label, according to data released this week by Beverage Marketing Corp.