Jack Blog
July 12th, 2012 By Jack Morton
I love. love. love. Coke’s marketing.
That is, the Coke marketing that practices “open happiness” in the form of machines that dispense footballs. Security cameras that capture potato chip dealers and attacks of friendship. K’Naan Waving Flag. And letting Google re:brief its classic Hilltop ad for the mobile age (and win a Mobile Grand Prix at Cannes in the process).
Simple. Brilliant. Generous. Forward-looking.
What would happen if Coke truly practiced “open happiness” in 2 recent and tough situations…
… when Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho showed up at a press conference with a Pepsi (Pepsi sponsors his new team) and Coke terminated his sponsorship deal, calling it “embarassing”. Does the brand of happiness get embarassed and angry? What if it had laughed this thoughtless blunder off, then quietly broken things off later on?
… and when SodaStream launched its #colawars campaign specifically calling out Coke on sustainability, what if Coke had refused to enter the screechy fray (by sending cease and desist letters) but had instead aggressively one-upped the sustainability ante… say, by declaring its commitment to reducing waste on the kind of global scale only it can command AND announcing its own competitive in-home soda-making product. Okay, that would make bottlers really mad… but remember:
Simple. Brilliant. Generous. And Forward-looking.