Coke Debuts Two New Holiday Spots

Starbucks May Launch Its Own Handcrafted Soda Line

via http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com

Since last spring Starbucks has been secretly testing the market for "handcrafted sodas." The experiment has been limited to stores in Japan, Singapore, Atlanta, and Austin, Texas where baristas have been using Soda Stream-like machines to carbonate beverages.

But it doesn't just stop with soda. The coffee giant has been letting customers add carbonation to a bunch of other drinks too. CEO Howard Schultz told investors recently that the company thinks carbonation is "a significant opportunity" for the company.

The idea to test the market for carbonated drinks came from the idea that customers generally want lighter drinks later in the day. But rather than offer bottled fizz, the company opted to go for handcrafted sodas that can be carbonated right before your eyes.

Though it's been very hush-hush, there haven't been many restrictions so far on which drinks customers can and can't add some fizz to. The only constraints so far have been espresso drinks and Frappucinos, which can't yet be carbonated according to what a company representative told Quartz.

So what does this mean for your caffeinated future?

Adding carbonation to your drink may be the next add-on to add to the list. In the future you might be able to add carbonation the same way you can add an extra pump of syrup or an extra shot.

"I would say that it's a next natural step in our customization options," a Starbucks spokesperson said.

In South Africa, Coke Pays Its Respects To Nelson Mandela

via creativity-online.com

In the wake of Nelson Mandela's death, Coca-Cola South Africa has created this a tribute spot, using Coke bottles, bottle tops and signature colors to illustrate the words of the narrator. The brand is also asking people to submit online tributes to Mandela at this microsite, rememberingmandela.com.

New Coca-Cola Life is Perfect for Diet Drinkers Concerned About Aspartame

via http://foodbeast.com

The next time you walk through the soda aisle don’t be surprised if you have to do a double take at these green labeled Coca-Cola bottles. It’s being reported that as early as next year Coca-Cola Life may hit U.S. shelves. The new Coca-Cola product is sweetened with sugar and zero calorie stevia, an all natural sweetener. Though the beverage isn’t being marketed as a new addition to the Diet Coke line, Coca-Cola Life does indeed have a significant lower amount of calories than it’s red can counterpart. At 100 calories for a 20-ounce bottle versus 240 calories for original Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Life is a smarter choice for the calorie conscious.

The creation of this new product could also come on the heels of aspartame being questioned more and more by diet soda drinkers and their growing concerns in consuming the questionable chemical. Or perhaps Coca-Cola is trying to ease Mexicoke lovers woes after the whole “cane sugar is too expensive so we’re switching to corn syrup” debacle. Either way, with obesity rates still on the rise Coca-Cola Life will be a lighter option for original Coke enthusiasts who don’t want to sacrifice the taste of their beloved beverage for the sake of calories.

Buffalo Wild Wings switches from Coke to Pepsi

via http://www.cnbc.com

NEW YORK -- Buffalo Wild Wings says it's switching from Coke to Pepsi, noting that it also plans to tap into PepsiCo snacks such as Doritos to create new menu offerings.

The Minneapolis-based chain, which more than 975 locations in the U.S., said the switch will take place starting in the new year.

PepsiCo has been working to extend its snacks business through partnerships with restaurant chains. Last year, the company famously teamed up with Taco Bell to create Dorito-flavored taco shells that have since helped the fast-food chain boost its sales.

PepsiCo's Mountain Dew drinks may also be a good fit for Buffalo Wild Wings, which provides customers with TV screens to watch sporting events.

It's not the first time a restaurant change has switched alliances on the beverage front. California Pizza Kitchen, for example, recently said it was switching from Pepsi to Coke.

"This is a good win by Pepsi but the fountain biz is highly competitive and accounts swing back and forth" when they open up, said John Sicher, publisher of Beverage Digest.

Overall, Coca-Cola Co. still has about 70 percent of the fountain business in the U.S., according to Beverage Digest. Its clients include McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's.

COLORFUL ART DIRECTION TAKES CENTER STAGE IN COKE LIFE SPOT CELEBRATING PARENTHOOD

via creativity-online.com

Coke Life, the soda brand's low-calorite, natural Coke version made out of stevia plant extract, debuted in Argentina this summer. It's supposed to be a healthier version of Coke, and comes with a green label, implying nature, vigor and purity. So it's fitting that Santos, in advertising the product, goes for a heart-warming tale about new parents, chronicling their journey from finding that "positive" sign on the test through the interminable nighttime feedings, wanton destruction of property and complete lack of sex life any caregiver in charge of an infant is probably familiar with. The spot is gorgeously done, with some really colorful art direction that's reminiscent of Wes Anderson -- plenty of stark colors and a "homey" feel. Directed by Pucho Mentasti, it features the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody" -- a track whose vocals are used especially well towards the end, when the dad in the family gets another big surprise.

Driving Change: Coca-Cola Transforms Service Vans to Hybrid Vehicles

via http://online.wsj.com

Coca-Cola's familiar service vans are getting a makeover just in time for the New Year. Coca-Cola is converting all of its newly purchased 2014 Chevrolet Express service vans into fuel-efficient hybrid-electric vehicles using XL Hybrids' innovative powertrain technology. The updated vans will be traversing roads across the country by year's end.

Coca-Cola currently operates the largest heavy-duty hybrid-electric delivery fleet in North America. The addition of 100 hybrid service vans builds upon this work by expanding the variety of fuel-efficient options in the Company's light-duty fleet.

"Adoption of this hybrid technology supports Coca-Cola's goal to reduce the carbon footprint embedded in 'the drink in your hand' by 25 percent by 2020," said Bruce Karas, Vice President of Environment and Sustainability for Coca-Cola. "We continue to make energy-saving investments because they are good for business, good for the communities we serve and good for the planet."
Early test results of this hybrid technology were positive, showing a 15 to 20 percent fuel reduction compared to the Company's conventional vans. The 100 new hybrid vans are expected to eliminate about 4,000 total tons of carbon dioxide emissions that conventional vans would produce over their 10-year life span.

As a result of the low maintenance and fuel savings, the powertrain unit pays for itself three times over its life span.

"XL Hybrids provides technology that helps Coca-Cola meet its emissions reduction goals while saving money," said Justin Ashton, Vice President of Business Development and Co-founder at XL Hybrids. "Our company's goal is to accelerate fuel and emissions reductions at a large scale. To accomplish this, we had to design and commercialize technology that provides a solid economic return on investment to corporate customers."

In addition to the hybrid service vans, Coca-Cola recently announced the roll out of 16 first-of-its-kind refrigerated plug-in electric vehicles. These trucks deliver the Company's Odwalla(R) brand beverages in the San Francisco Bay Area. Coca-Cola is also making carbon footprint reductions across its manufacturing processes, packaging and refrigeration equipment.

Old Spice Guy Isaiah Mustafa Goes Transatlantic In Hunt For Gentlemanliness

Old Spice's Isaiah Mustafa is back, but this time with a project aimed at the U.K. market. This time he's on a hunt not just for manliness but gentlemanliness, as epitomized by the traditional British gent. Mustafa will travel through the City of London for the Old Spice Gentleman City Tour, where he will be inviting journalists, bloggers and fans onto his carriage for photos of man-iconic landmarks, which apparently include St. Paul's Cathedral. Meanwhile, Old Spice will release a number of its trademark social media videos, where Mustafa will share his views on the quirky regional differences in gentlemanly behavior across Britain's biggest regions and cities.

All the content posted on the Old Spice U.K. Facebook page and on Instagram during December, hashtagged #GentleManHunt. Old Spice has also conducted its own research, with a sample over 2,000 U.K. adults, into views of masculinity (for example, the brand found that less than two out of 10 men thought a modern man should wear speedos or a sarong).

The work is by Leo Burnett, the P&G roster agency for Old Spice in the U.K.

Kombucha Bubbles Toward the Mainstream

via bevnet.com

For a small deal, it certainly aroused a fair amount of attention, at least in my world. Just a few weeks ago, Los Angeles-based First Beverage Group wrote a check of undisclosed magnitude for what it described as a significant minority position in a small, local kombucha producer with the avowedly retro name Health-Ade. But the Health-Ade deal was the first public acknowledgement that I’ve noticed that serious institutional money is starting to chase this rarefied sector. Coincidentally, the same week, Health-Ade and several of its peers in this rapidly burgeoning field joined up with kombucha proselytizers Hannah Crum and Alex LaGory to launch the industry’s first trade group, Kombucha Brewers International, with plans for a Kombucha Konvention in Santa Monica, Calif., in January. So first, a private equity move, then a convention. Does this herald that kombucha, all of a sudden, has come of age?

That may be a stretch at this point, but the segment certainly is becoming tantalizingly visible even to the beverage conglomerates. Some of that Health-Ade investment, after all, came from the Coca-Cola Co. via its stake in the First Beverage fund; also, there have long been rumblings that kombucha-like probiotic brand KeVita has dallied with PepsiCo’s incubation arm in Southern California. If you put aside all the distracting talk of “scoby” and “mushrooms,” kombucha has a lot going for it: health benefits via the high probiotic content, a broad palette of techniques that allow individual marketers to differentiate their liquids much the way craft brewers can (and craft soda purveyors can’t), a growing on-premise component, and a burgeoning sense of grass-roots authenticity that comes of having an active network of home brewers who swap their scobies. (OK, hard to avoid that word.)

Of course, the segment has produced one mega-brand already, GT’s, which so far dominates with its core GT’s and juice-inflected GT’s Synergy, and has showed agility by early clambering aboard the chia bandwagon with a well-received subline. It’s defined the segment so far, and attained the sorts of velocities we’re not supposed to expect in the natural food channel. In fact, I believe GT’s and the kombucha segment deserves credit for helping to elevate the overall beverage segment, much in the way Starbucks once elevated a dreary coffee sector. It’s offered a refreshing burst of premium positioning at a time that even the Whole Foods grab-and-go cooler seems to have become a price promotion battlefield. Arguably, kombucha’s premium but not scary-premium price softened up consumers for the really premium prices charged by the new breed of high-pressure-processed (HPP) juice and cleanse purveyors like BluePrint, Evolution Fresh and Suja.

But kombucha also comes with massive challenges to widespread adoption. Many items still carry a vinegary taste that may be a badge of authenticity to core users but is a turn-off to mainstream consumers. The artisanal nature of production, and the difficult-to-control risk that continued in-bottle fermentation will take the product above acceptable alcohol content levels, is another disincentive for the majors to play. (I’m sure you all remember the massive recall of the category undertaken by Whole Foods in 2010 after several brands, including GT’s Synergy, were found to have consistently excessive levels of alcohol. And I do worry that GT’s continues to be a bit too cavalier about this issue, which I don’t believed it’s fully resolved.) Another challenge, and a sizable one: the need for the products to be kept refrigerated from plant all the way to retail.

Are these insuperable obstacles? I suspect not, in part because so many of the most intriguing beverage sectors today – from cold-brewed coffee to HPP juices – share them that it’s in the industry’s interest to find ways to resolve them. On the distribution front, for instance, it occurs to me that beer wholesalers could prove a workable route to market. After all, they understand fermented products (quite a few beer wholesalers were among those eager to take a flier on the German fermented soda Bionade, though that company’s U.S. push disintegrated before it really got started) and many have been putting in cold capacity to accommodate their craft beer kegs. With kombucha also proving an ancillary sell to their more cutting-edge on-premise accounts, it may make sense. (My local multitap house in Manhattan, Dive Bar, has kept KBBK Kombucha Brooklyn consistently on tap for two years now.) And of course, these days, beer wholesalers have both non-alcoholic and alcoholic varieties of the product to choose from.

And there’s no question that, in the hands of countless celebrities, kombucha’s profile in pop culture is rising. Ironically, there’s a good chance the massive Whole Foods recall may have given the category an awareness jolt. Hey, that hilarious “It’s Gettin’ Real in the Whole Foods Parking Lot” video has been viewed 5 million times on Youtube by now, and the rapper’s complaint that “I’ve been on edge ever since they took kombucha off the shelves” no doubt gets a lot of knowing smiles from viewers. Maybe it even gives the product an air of danger!

So who are the next winners likely to be, after GT’s? That’s a tough call. Among those looking to go broad, I can understand First Beverage’s enthusiasm for Health-Ade, with its approachable recipes, unmistakable apothecary look and links to local farms. Reed’s Inc. has made an aggressive push behind its highly drinkable Culture Club Kombucha, which is finally cracking major retailers. High Country has weathered its share of storms that rivals like Honest Tea and Vibranz didn’t. A group in Austin is intriguingly, if controversially, executing their Live Kombucha as a soft drink. But much as with craft beer, I think many winners will bubble up from the local level, as with a tiny outfit called Beyond Kombucha Artisan Fermented Tea in my burg. After all, who could resist a chance to try a Mava Roka Maple Vanilla Rooibos Kombucha Ale (with a 6.5% alcohol kick)? If things like that interest you, maybe it’s time to book a flight to Santa Monica in January for the konvention.

Five Ways to Use Twitter's New Targeting Capabilities

via http://www.adweek.com

With the announcement of its new ad targeting capability, “tailored audiences,” Twitter opens the door to more data and sends a message to the rest of the marketing world that the new programmatic era has arrived.

Tailored audiences, a partnership between Twitter and companies like Chango, allows more advanced targeting at the individual level, meaning it takes into account the kinds of things people do when they’re not on Twitter, from visiting websites to searching for products on Google.

Until now, Promoted Tweets were limited to what Twitter already knew about a user—gender, location, interests. Meanwhile, access to big data and programmatic marketing tools were confined to the worlds of display ads and the increasingly popular Facebook media exchange, FBX. Starting this week, these capabilities combine into a powerful tool that has far-reaching implications for CMOs and others in the marketing business.

Here are five ways to use these capabilities in your next campaign, from “Twitter’s Tailored Audiences Handbook”:

1. Acquire new customers: Send a Promoted Tweet to in-market consumers who haven’t previously engaged with your brand but have searched for relevant terms. For example, a manufacturer of car seats for children could deliver a special offer via Twitter to customers who type the words “baby car seat” into a search engine. Using a partner like Chango that can collect billions of searches from Google, Yahoo and Bing can make it possible to do this.

2. Encourage new customers to engage socially: Leveraging information about a user who has visited a brand’s website, more commonly thought of as “retargeting,” can now be reimagined on Twitter with the tailored audiences product. A good use of this program is to deliver a promotional message on Twitter to a user who hasn’t made a purchase yet.

3. Start a conversation with brand loyalists: With Twitter’s tailored audiences, marketers will be able to run a Promoted Tweets campaign to their most frequent visitors, as well as to individuals who have visited sites that are positively associated with their own brand.

4. Market to a subset of your existing customers: Many marketers already keep track of their audiences in CRM systems, some of which have incorporated engagements on Twitter. This CRM data can now be made actionable on Twitter. For example, an advertiser could run a Promoted Account campaign to its most active customers from the previous month. 

5. Reconnect with dormant customers: Rather than showing dozens of banner ads to a an inactive user, a marketer can now look at each consumer at the individual level and decide what type of outreach represents the maximum value, or when the right moment is to make contact based on a person’s historical purchases.