If you can't find your name on a Coke bottle this go round, it's probably because you've got an odd-ball name.
Or, more specifically, you simply don't have one of the 1,000 most popular names in the nation.
Beginning May 1, Coca-Cola will bring back its wildly-successful "Share a Coke" promotion featuring bottles with familiar first names featured front and center within the iconic, red and white Coca-Cola label. The promotion, which lasts through the summer, will feature first names appearing on hundreds of millions of 20-ounce bottles of Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coke Zero.
For Coca-Cola, it's all about getting its soft drinks into the hands of young consumers who the cola giant hopes will flood social media with images of themselves drinking Coca-Cola beverages with their names imprinted across the labels. The numbers are convincing. Even as soft drink sales have been on the steady decline, during last year's promotion, Coca-Cola saw its largest-ever year-over-year growth in the 20-ounce package — more than 19%.
"We saw an incredible amount of self expression last year with Share a Coke," says Evan Holod, Coca-Cola brand director. In fact, when word of the promotion first began to spread last year, Share a Coke was the No. 1 global trending topic last July 29.
Which may explain why Coca-Cola executives are quadrupling the size of the promotion from 250 first names last year to 1,000 this year. Also, for the first time, U.S residents also will be able to customize and purchase Share a Coke bottles online — though for a serious premium. These 8-ounce glass bottles, with personalized labels that are heat-shrunk onto them, sell for $5 each — with free shipping for those purchasing five or more.
Despite the steep price-tag, Coca-Cola's goal is less about profiting from the venture and more about coaxing younger consumers to snap photos of themselves with their personalized bottles — then passing the images along via social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.
"Teens love to be famous," says Jennifer Healan, group director of integrated marketing content at Coca-Cola. "To teens, it's all about me, me, me. Think of all the selfies. Now, you can take a selfie with your name on a Coke bottle."
Last year's best-selling Coca-Cola bottle name: Chris.
The names that — based on third-party research — Coca-Cola expects to be 2015's best-sellers: Michael and Jessica.
One brand expert says that Coke's got this promotion right. "This fits perfectly with young people's desire both to be unique and to be part of the crowd," says brand consultant Tracey Riese. "Personalizing Coke — making an iconic brand all about us — is sort of the ultimate selfie."
Even then, Riese warns, these same younger consumers are increasingly wise to Coke's marketing ways and increasingly concerned about eating healthier. So, she warns, "targeting younger consumers with a promotion designed to increase their consumption of these products could potentially lead to a backlash."
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