Coke Zero: Drinkable advertising

Source: Direct Marketing Association (US), Gold, DMA International

ECHO Awards, 2015
Downloaded from WARC

This case study demonstrates how Coke Zero, the reduced calorie drink, used a cross-platform
strategy and tie-up with the Shazam app to grow sampling in the US.

Coke Zero has been around for ten years, but in the US four out of five millennials have never
tried it.
This campaign targeted its audiences with 'drinkable' ads: at every point, sampling the product
was the focus, from a huge billboard that served Coke Zero, flyers that folded into drinking straws
and a Shazam app tie up, that 'poured' a Coke Zero into people's phones in real time.
The campaign delivered more samples over a single weekend than any previous Coke Zero
marketing push and was also the most 'Shazamed' ad in history to date, with over 200,000 hits on
the app.

Campaign details
Agency: Ogilvy New York
Client: The Coca-Cola Company
Category: Consumer Products

Executive summary
Coke Zero has been around for ten years, but in the US four out of five millennials have never tried it. To
differentiate the brand from other diet colas, it was necessary to get millennials to taste Coke Zero. This
campaign targeted its audiences with 'drinkable' ads. At every point, sampling the product was the focus, from a
huge billboard that served Coke Zero, flyers that folded into drinking straws and a Shazam app tie up, that
'poured' a Coke Zero into people's phones in real time. The campaign delivered more samples over a single
weekend than any previous Coke Zero marketing push. It was also the most Shazamed ad in history to date,
with over 200,000 hits on the app.
Product description
Coke Zero, is a product of The Coca-Cola Company. It is a low-calorie variation of Coca-Cola introduced in
2005.

Objective of the campaign

In the US 80% of millennials have never tried Coke Zero. They perceive it to be just another diet drink with poor
taste. In fact, diet colas in general have suffered from stigma attached to them with consumers often rejecting
them due to perceived bad taste and unwillingness to compromise. And since Coke Zero has been around for 10
years, they just ignore it.

However research shows that 60% of people who do try Coke Zero, like it. So much so that they go on to repeat
purchase. So our challenge was to create a campaign that would grab the attention of the ever elusive and
uninterested millennial with one main goal: to drive trial in order to influence sales growth.

Target audience
Our target audience was business-to-consumer with our bullseye audience being millennials aged 18-24, the
majority of whom have never tried Coke Zero.

The entry in detail

Enacted solution
Understanding our target audience, we knew that merely talking about the taste of Coke Zero would not be
enough to change their perception. Instead we confronted their prejudice by disrupting their routine at every
touch point and used advertising to put a Coke Zero directly into their hands. Thus Drinkable Advertising was
born – a campaign whereby each medium pertinent to a millennial's life including TV, radio, print, out-of- home,
direct and social presented them the opportunity to taste Coke Zero.

Research allowed us to identify these channels that make up our target's distinct media consumption habits and
gave us insight into their passion points, including college basketball. This knowledge was used to inform our
media plan, partnerships and on-the-ground activations to maximise coverage and frequency. As a result we
chose to launch our campaign during the NCAA Basketball Finals in Indianapolis. This event not only draws a
huge millennial crowd but is also syndicated to millions nationally, thus widening our reach.

At the heart of the action was our massive 26-by-36 ft Drinkable Billboard that served real ice-cold Coke Zero to
thousands of fans. The liquid flowed from a giant Coke Zero bottle through 4,500 ft of straw tubing that spelled
out 'taste it', until it reached seven dispensers on the ground. This was followed by several other novel drinkable
executions like our Drinkable Print Ad, which folded into a cup, and our Drinkable Flyer, which turned into straw,
both of which were used as mechanism not only to redeem but to enjoy a free Coke Zero.
Most notably our campaign leveraged Shazam, an app with unparalleled penetration amongst millennials, and
developed an entirely new way of using their audio recognition technology. It was a first of its kind. The result
was a uniquely interactive and synchronized dual-screen experience that allowed TV, radio and out-of-home to
pour a Coke Zero directly into people's phones, in real-time.

Using silent subsonic sounds we also turned phones into digital straws that allowed people to drink Coke Zero
from digital posters, cinema and giant concert screens. No matter the interaction, each resulted in a free ice-cold
Coke Zeros available at special Coca-Cola vending machines and participating retail stores. Furthermore, the
mere novelty of these experiences garnered huge social media buzz as well as PR from around the globe.
Subsequently this further amplified our branding message of 'You Don't Know Zero 'Til You've Tried It'.
Results as they relate to the objective(s) of the campaign
The Drinkable Billboard served an average of one Coke Zero every 10 seconds
The Drinkable Poster delivered over 4,000 Coke Zeros in a single weekend.
On its first run, the Drinkable TVC yielded so many interactions that it broke Shazam's servers for the first
time ever.
After the third run, the Drinkable TVC became the most Shazamed ad of all time with 202,157 total Shazam
hits.
The campaign generated over 44 million PR and social media impressions.
Drinkable Advertising delivered just shy of 155,000 samples in a single weekend, the best results in the
history of the brand.

Significance of campaign
Drinkable Advertising transformed every single medium into an invitation to try Coke Zero. It was more than just
an innovation in disruptive sampling; it was a radical shift in how our audience was able to interact with the
brand. It far exceeded the client's expectations by delivering the best sampling results in the history of the brand.
© Copyright Direct Marketing Association 2015
Direct Marketing Association
1120 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036-6700
Tel: +1 202 861 2496

www.warc.com

All rights reserved including database rights. This electronic file is for the personal use of authorised users based at the subscribing
company's office location. It may not be reproduced, posted on intranets, extranets or the internet, e-mailed, archived or shared electronically
either within the purchaser's organisation or externally without express written permission from Warc.