Coke has smashed its summer sales forecast on the back of its #colouryoursummer campaign – an attempt to reconnect with the ever-increasing distanced teen audience with the introduction of a series of coloured cans.
The #colouryoursummer campaign has paid dividends for the soft drinks giant, resulting in a 27% sales uplift above the national forecast.
Coke issued a series of coloured cans at the start of the summer, backed by an unconventional strategy - #colouryoursummer, which for the first time in Aus/NZ saw the iconic brand entirely dispense with a summer TV campaign.
Group marketing manager Dianna Everett said: “We are obviously very pleased” she said, adding: “this helped our business gain 7% incremental single serve transactions in quarter four.”
“We were brave and took risks throughout the campaign to push the boundaries of innovation,” added the marketing manager, pointing to the predominantly social activity that the brand rolled out during Dec/Jan/Feb.
#colouryoursummer, supported by an unconfirmed spend of roughly $10m in the region, saw Coke throw off the shackles of convention and embrace social in a bid to reconnect with the teen audience it knew it was beginning to lose.
“Our intention was to build authenticity and credibly within the youth audience. And as such, the majority of the elements throughout the campaign were non-traditional,” said Everett.
The campaign included various tie-ups with YouTube stars such as ChampCoong, Jamie Curry and Brisbane funnyman Adrian Van Oyen. It also signed on for promotional activity with the hugely-popular YouTube star Troye Silvan, who engaged in a #colouryoursummer Q&A with fans on the video site.
#asktroyelive activity was the number one trending hashtag globally at the time of the Q&A and continued to trend in the top five for the following 24 hours.
Coke created 60 pieces of “snackable” content which it seeded across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, tapping into a trend for the ‘random’ or ‘authentic’. As a result, it notched up 47 million earned impressions on social (across Aus/NZ). It also boasts that it connected with 1.5 million engaged users on the #colouryoursummer Facebook page and that 90% of those were teens.
Other than social, the only other media adopted by Coke was Outdoor, and even then it was geared towards JCDecaux’s digital outdoor panels and bus shelters with in-built image recognition technology.
Coke reports that it witnessed a 90% social positive sentiment and that 77% of teens said the drinks brand is in touch with youth culture.
Elsewhere, the company will soon launch the natural sugar ‘Life’ version of its best-selling drink in Australia and New Zealand.
Pitched as containing a third less sugar and a third fewer calories, and sweetened with natural stevia extracts, the local roll out is expected to arrive in April.
Coke Life is the first new Coca-Cola product launch in Australia and New Zealand since the arrival of Coke Zero in 2006.
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Email Nicola at nicolariches@yaffa.com.au.