Coke’s Personalized Marketing Campaign Gains Online Buzz

Via WallStreetJournal

Coke is personalizing its soda bottles as part of its “Share a Coke” marketing campaign.

Coca-Cola 'sKO +0.12% marketing campaign this summer is getting social media traction.

Since its launch in early June, the “Share a Coke” campaign — which features the sale of bottles whose logos have been replaced with popular names among teens and Millennials — has generated steadily growing online buzz, particularly on Instagram, Coke says.  The company said there have been more than 125,000 posts about the campaign across all channels from June 2 through July 14 and said 96% of consumer sentiment toward the campaign is either positive or neutral.

And according to social media analytics firm Networked Insights, the “Share a Coke” campaign is generating more brand conversation for Coke than the summer campaigns for beverage companies Coors TAP -0.19% Light and Bud Light. Roughly 12% of conversations about Coke online from June 1o to July 11 can be attributed to the “Share a Coke” campaign, compared with 11% for Coors Light’s “Live Summer” campaign and 8% for Bud Light’s “Whatever USA” campaign, Networked Insights said.

The firm, which tracks consumer sentiment across Twitter TWTR +0.34%, blogs, forums and other digital sources, said 45% of consumer sentiment is favorable toward the Share a Coke campaign. Fifty percent consumer sentiment is neutral towards the campaign and only 5% is negative, Networked Insights said.

As part of the campaign, 250 of the most popular names among young people are taking the place of Coke’s iconic logo, for sale in select stores. Customers with less-common names  are able to get a mini-can customized with their name at one of the brand’s 500 stops across the country, or go online to personalize a virtual bottle and post it on social media. Consumers can share pictures of their personalized Cokes with the hashtag #shareacoke.

The company said more than 353,000 virtual bottles have been shared on the Share a Coke campaign’s website.

The “Share a Coke” program was first introduced in Australia in 2012 and has since been launched in more than 50 countries. The campaign launched in the U.S. last month and the personalized bottles will remain on store shelves through August. To promote the program, Coke is running a nine-week ad campaign that features new TV commercials, cinema ads, social and digital engagement, digital billboards and experiential activations across the country.

“The #shareacoke hashtag and campaign-specific Web site are smart content marketing plays, but the offline act of sharing Coke prompts many consumers to talk about the campaign through digital channels as well,” said Rick Miller, Networked Insights’ vice president of strategic insights.