1. No category

Coca-Cola Shares a Successful
Approach to Social Media Interaction
A Public Relations case study of the “Share a Coke” campaign
Alexandra Penner, Missouri State University
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents .............................................................................................................................................. 2
1.0 Purpose ......................................................................................................................................................... 3
2.0 Background................................................................................................................................................... 3
Summary of campaign .................................................................................................................................. 3
Packaging ................................................................................................................................................... 3
Social media engagement ......................................................................................................................... 3
Objectives, Strategies & Tactics .................................................................................................................. 4
Objective .................................................................................................................................................... 4
Strategy ....................................................................................................................................................... 4
Tactics ......................................................................................................................................................... 5
3.0 Data ............................................................................................................................................................... 5
Consumer Response ..................................................................................................................................... 5
Media Data ..................................................................................................................................................... 5
Social media response .............................................................................................................................. 5
Media impressions .................................................................................................................................... 6
Sale Statistics .................................................................................................................................................. 6
4.0 Data analysis & Recommendations .......................................................................................................... 6
5.0 References..................................................................................................................................................... 8
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1.0 Purpose
The purpose of this Public Relations case study is to describe
the success of Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign. The
execution and results of the campaign demonstrate an
innovative way Public Relations specialist can approach social
media for their organization.
2.0 Background
Summary of campaign
In an innovative campaign to get the public interacting with
their brand, Coca-Cola introduced the “Share a Coke”
campaign. This campaign was first introduced in the country of
Australia in 2011. Following its incredible success on social
media, “Share a Coke” was adapted into more than 50
countries, including the United States in the summer of 2014
(Moye, 2014). The campaign consisted of three primary parts:


Advertisement (Marketing Mag, 2012)
Packaging
Social media engagement
These two parts worked hand in hand to boost brand image and increase summer sales of CocaCola products.
Packaging
On the 20-oz. bottles of Diet, Zero and original Coke
flavors Coca-Cola substituted the classic Coca-Cola logo
with 250 of the most popular names held by teens and
millennials. Consumers were invited to not only hunt
for their own name but to also pick out the names of
their family, friends and coworkers. The “Share a Coke”
campaign represents the first time Coca-Cola has made
a significant change to its packaging since the brands
conception (Share a coke with matt, 2011).
“Share a Coke” Electronic Billboard
(Marketing Mag, 2012)
Social media engagement
Under the personalized name on the bottle fans were encouraged to share their experience
with their friends online via #ShareACoke. “When teens see that the iconic Coca-Cola logo
has been replaced by their name or their friends’ names, they can’t help but take a picture
and post it online.” Jennifer Healan, group director of integrated marketing content and
design with Coca-Cola North America explained (Moye, 2014). The purpose of the
packaging is to get fans sharing and talking online about the brand in a personal way.
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A Coca-Cola spokeswoman explained “We wanted people to
discover the campaign for themselves, so Share a Coke packs
hit shelves before we officially launched the advertising. As a
result, right from the outset, the public reaction and
engagement has been phenomenal, with tens of thousands of
tweets via social media channels. We look forward to
maintaining that interest through the summer as the campaign
progresses” (O’Reilly, 2013).
Consumers adapting “Share a Coke”
(Moye, 2014)
In order to encourage online engagement with the brand and
as a form of advertising Coca-Cola selected media and celebrities with large social media presence
were sent personalized marketing kits they contained coke products with their names already printed
on them. They were encouraged to share these products with their network of friends (Marketing
Mag, 2012).
Objectives, Strategies & Tactics
The “Share a Coke” campaign utilized the following
objectives and strategies:
Objective
The primary objective was increase the sales and
consumption of Coca-Cola. The campaign had the
secondary objective of getting people talking online
in a positive way about the brand (Marketing Mag, 2012).
Coca-Cola “Share a Coke” Commercial
Strategy
Coca-Cola utilized 2 key strategies to achieve the objective. The first was multi-platform
communication. Coke used TV, internet, social media and traditional media to launch and
maintain share a coke. On top of that they had a
customizable electronic bill board that people could
text names to coke and have them appear on the bill
board for everyone to see. “The multi-platform
communications strategy acted as an invitation to
‘Share a Coke’ with someone you know, or want to
know and gave people the tools to find, connect and
share.” (Marketing Mag, 2012). The second strategy
was listening and responding. An example of this is
when coke saw how popular the campaign was they
Say thank you with “Share a Coke”
took recommendations on social media for 260 more
names to put on their bottles. They listened to what
consumers wanted then responded accordingly. “Coke constantly listened to what
consumers were doing with the campaign in order to be able to surprise, maintain
momentum and spark further conversations throughout the campaign period.” (Marketing
Mag, 2012).
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Tactics
The tactics consisted of social media and packaging which was discussed under the summary
of campaign.
3.0 Data
The data that supports the “Share a Coke” campaign and demonstrates its success can be divided
into consumer response, media data and sales statistics.
Consumer Response
The customer response to the “Share a Coke” was incredibly
positive. In fact, the analytical company reported that
consumers and Coca-Cola fans spoke frequently about
finding their name on a coke product themselves or receiving
one from a friend or loved ones (Handerspeck, 2014).
Consumers were also found to respond more positively to
the Coca-Cola brand following the “Share a Coke”
campaign. Teens claimed the campaign gave them a very
Pregnancy announcement with “Share a Coke”
positive impression of Coke and they viewed the company
following the campaign as “always doing news things” and
as “a brand I love” (Marketing Mag, 2012). The target audience of this campaign was millennial.
Changed attitudes towards the brand was a surprise benefit of the “Share a Coke” campaign.
Media Data
As part of the strategies and tactics for the “Share a Coke” campaign Coca-Cola used various media
outlets to help drive their objectives. These media outlets included social median and traditional
media among others. The social media response was the area where Coca-Cola made the biggest
impact.
Social media response
Facebook and Twitter provided the
highest amounts of customer social media
interaction. As of 2013 Coke claimed that
“more than 120,000 tweets have already
been sent about the personalized bottles as
consumers share images” (Baker, 2013).
Data also points to traffic on Coca-Cola’s
Facebook page increasing by 870 percent
and growing by thirty-nine percent
Share a Coke advertisement (Marketing Mag, 2012)
(Marketing Mag, 2012). Forty-five percent
of all online posts on Twitter and
Facebook have been outwardly positive,
with another fifty percent being neutral that means only five percent were negative
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(Henderspeck, 2014). In Australia the Coca-Cola Facebook page was the number one most
talked about page and it came in as number twenty-third most talked about page worldwide
during the “Share a Coke” campaign (Marketing Mag, 2012).
Henderspeck even points out that “The campaign even has
sparked humorous consumer interaction, such as a
CollegeHumor video that turned “Share A Coke” into a
competition, multiple memes that lament the challenges of
finding a bottle with a specific name, and even a fan video by
a couple that used “Share A Coke” to impersonate celebrities
and then announce that they are expecting a child” (2014).
College Humor Parody video
Media impressions
The “Share a Coke” campaign in addition to its social media
response earned a total of 18,300,000-plus media impressions (Marketing Mag, 2012). CocaCola claimed their aid would be seen by approximately ninety-four percent of the population
at least twenty times during the summer the campaign was running (Joseph, 2014).
Sale Statistics
The past couple of years have been the hardest markets for
beverage companies. Tim Eales, strategic insight director at
IRI a market research company explained for Marketing Mag
that Coca-Cola single packs 330ml cans and 375ml and 500ml
bottles were the fastest growing sales product, rising monthly
and were considered strong sellers in 2013 (Joseph, 2014).
Single pack sells were the “Share a Coke” campaign’s most
Advertising billboard (Moye, 2014)
successful area. Eales also attributed the rise in sales to the
“weeks of fabulous weather last July off the back of some
really poor conditions which delivered monster sales for the FMCG sector, particularly for soft
drinks. That month skews the data slightly” (Joseph, 2014).
Young adults, which were the target for the “Share a Coke” campaign increased their consumption
significantly, during the campaign sales were up seven percent within that market. 2011 was the most
successful summer ever for Coca-Cola and that is due to the strong success of “Share a Coke”
(Marketing Mag, 2012).
4.0 Data analysis & Recommendations
The implications the “Share a Coke” campaign has on
Public Relations is broad. What the “Share a Coke”
campaign has done is demonstrate that positive social media
interaction is possible. If organizations give their publics
Statistics from Australia Campaign provided by Coke
a way to interact with their band in a way that isn’t pushy
they will have the most success. Organizations need to make the communication seem fluid and not
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pushy. Organizations need to remember that they aren’t talking to their audience on social media,
they are talking with them. It can be scary to think about running social media for a brand because
there is so much room for error. But “Share a Coke” shows that if organizations have a clear
message to share and that message has clear objectives then it will be successful and the organization
will get feedback from their audience.
One of the biggest Public Relations implications from the “Share a Coke” campaign is the way
Coca-Cola was able to change attitudes towards their brand.
Teens said they had very positive views of coke as an
organization following this campaign. O’Reilly for Marketing
Week explained that
“the positivity around the campaign also appears to
have had a favorable impact on Coca-Cola’s general
reputation, which will be good news for its
communications team who often have to combat
criticism aimed at the brand from consumers and
activist groups over issues such as obesity, sustainability
Booths to personalize a Coke bottle or can
(Moye, 2014)
and advertising to children. Its Reputation score has
jumped from 13.8 to 18.9 in the period, behind only Schweppes – another CocaCola owned brand – in the Reputation rankings. General impression of the CocaCola brand has also lifted, up 7.3 points in the campaign’s lifetime” (2013).
Henderspeck reflected on “Share a Coke” and said “following this strong consumer
response, it’ll be interesting to see what other personalized campaigns brands promote next”
(2014). It will be interesting to see what trends emerge from this one campaign Coke
enacted. Bobby Brittain, the new marketing strategy and activation director at Coca-Cola
Great Britain said, "we were overwhelmed by the reception our consumers gave Share a
Coke last year” (Coke eyes another sale boost, 2014). Brittain goes on to say “having
successfully run the campaign in many markets worldwide, we've received a lot of feedback
from those at the heart of the campaign, our consumers" (Coke eyes another sale boost,
2014).
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5.0 References
Baker, R. (2013). Coke extends names on bottles to everyone. Marketing Week (Online Edition), 9.
Coke eyes another sales boost after bringing back 'Share a Coke'. (2014). Marketing Week (Online
Edition), 4.
Handerspeck, J. (2014). Where’s my Coke?. Beverage Industry, 105(9), 86.
Joseph, S. (2014). Coca-Cola sales not fizzing as too few 'Share a Coke'. Marketing Week (Online
Edition), 5.
Joseph, S. (2014, Aug. 11). “Coca-Cola sales not fizzing as too few ‘Share a Coke.’” Marketing Week
(online edition), Retrieved from: http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/sectors/food-anddrink/news/coca-cola-sales-not-fizzing-as-too-few-share-a-coke/4011371.article
Marketing Mag. (2012, June 22). “Share a Coke campaign post-analysis.” Marketing Mag. Retrieved
from: http://www.marketingmag.com.au/case-studies/share-a-coke-campaign-post-analysis15944/#.VIYenLFnBnk
Moye, J. (2014, June 10). “Summer of Sharing: ‘Share a Coke’ Campaign Rolls Out in the U.S.”
Retrieved from: http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/summer-of-sharing-share-acoke-campaign-rolls-out-in-the-us
Moye, J. (2014, Sept. 25). “Share a Coke: How the Groundbreaking Campaign Got Its Start 'Down
Under.’” Retrieved from: http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/share-a-coke-howthe-groundbreaking-campaign-got-its-start-down-under
“Share a Coke With Matt, or Luke….” (2011). Brand Packaging, 15(8), 6
“’Share a Coke’—Coca-Cola Global Campaign Analysis.” (2014, Aug. 8). Retrieved from:
http://cl2639.wordpress.com/2014/08/03/share-a-coke-coca-cola-global-campaignanalysis/
Smith, B. (2008). Creating Recognition for Employee Recognition: A Case Study on Marketing
Persuasion, Public Relations, and Branding. Conference Papers -- International Communication
Association, 1-29.
O’Reilly, L. (2013, June 4). “Brand Audit: Coca-Cola.” Marketing Week (online edition). Retrieved from:
http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/news/brand-audit-coca-cola/4006893.article
O’Reilly, L. (2014, July 17). “Share a Coke marketing returns with bigger push.” Marketing Week
(online edition). Retrieved from: http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/sectors/food-anddrink/news/share-a-coke-marketing-returns-with-bigger-push/4011180.article
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