Coca-Cola
has always been one of the kings when it comes to effective and innovative
marketing and advertising. But recently the “name campaign”, that sees the
names of people printed onto their cans and bottles, has been not only
effective and innovative but quite ingenious.
The
South African campaign was inspired by a similar “Share a Coke” campaign that
took place in Australia, but bringing this idea to fruition in South Africa –
the rainbow nation with much more diversity than other countries – proved to be
a gigantic and difficult task but not one that was impossible.
Coke,
being brilliant at what they do, used algorithms to work out what the most
popular names amongst South Africans were. And because their largest consumer
and target market is teenagers, they approached the Department of Home Affairs
for lists of names of people born between 1994 and 2000. After receiving those
names, the real task of narrowing them down based on language, gender and
region began. They needed a wide range of names that would appeal to the
masses.
Whereas
Australia used only 10 themes on their cans and bottles, the South African
brand strategists set themselves the ambitious goal of 150. With help from a
printing investor investing in their digital printing equipment, Coke managed
to pull it off. So that now when you open a fridge in the supermarket, or
wherever, to grab a can of Coke, there are various random names as opposed to
one name repeated several times.
The
company also went on tour with their vending machines around the country, with
some still being carried out in other provinces, so consumers could get their
own personalized cans if they didn’t happen to find their name already. There
is also a facility on their website to create virtual personalized cans.
Coca
Cola has always set themselves apart from other brands, especially their
biggest competitor Pepsi, and based their advertising and marketing on
wholesome values and relationships. With this personalized campaign, they have
managed to draw closer to their South African consumers than ever before
definitely making sure their success is only going to grow.
