A new Coca-Cola campaign has been launched in Israel and, once again, unique packs were the order of the day. Waqas Qureshi caught up with the soft drinks giant to discover how it came up with its summer push.
The brief Design two million unique labels to be printed on Diet Coke bottles throughout Israel over the summer
Client Coca-Coca Israel
Brand Diet Coke
Project manager: Izhak Saar, marketing manager, Coca- Cola Israel
As a multinational FMCG colossus, which also happens to be the world’s most popular soft drink brand, how do you follow in the footsteps of Coca-Cola’s ‘Share A Coke’ campaign? The hugely successfully marketing strategy was deployed throughout Europe last summer and repeated this year.
The simple answer is you cannot compare any other strategy with a personalised campaign that prints your name, as well as family and friends’ names, on drinks cans.
But Coca-Coca Israel has recently stepped out of the ‘Share A Coke’ shadow and delivered a remarkable branding and packaging blitz across the country. It’s a drive that has delivered impressive results.
The Diet Coke “Millions Of One Of A Kind Bottles” campaign launched two million unique labels with colourful designs on its Diet Coke bottles.
Running for two months over the summer, the whole design process was a collaboration of all of the agencies who work with Diet Coke including production company Q digital, design agencies Dahaf and Tel Aviv-based The Gefen Team, and led by the direction of Diet Coke’s marketing managers.
Print technology
The HP Indigo, which was successfully used for the “Share A Coke” drive, was deployed for the “Millions Of One Of A Kind Bottles” campaign.
The planning phase lasted about seven months, starting from the idea, then finding the technological solution and then launching the campaign.
The printing system was able to print a massive amount of bottles, each with its own unique. For consumers, this meant whoever bought a Diet Coke bottle received a one-of-a-kind design available in a variety of size options.
Izhak Saar, marketing manager for Coca-Cola Israel, says that the complex campaign was made possible due to the innovative printing technology by HP indigo. “A special algorithm was created which gave birth to the design technique. It could create millions of different designs that were completely auto-generated, with no need for human intervention. It allowed the presses to think like designers.”
He adds that the soft drinks giant was looking for a way to bring Diet Coke’s tagline, “Stay Extraordinary”, to life, and by bringing it alive, reaching out to all its consumers.
“We’ve decided that in order to convey the message, that each and every one of our consumers is unique, we’ll do more than just say it, we will actually make it happen. With that in mind, we decided to make each bottle unique so whenever a customer holds one, he or she knows there’s no other bottle that’s the same.”
Media blitz
The campaign also allowed consumers to create and collect gear to match their unique bottle. Select outlets allowed consumers to create thousands of Diet Coke-branded products such as bags, t-shirts and mobile phone covers.
Additionally, an online portal gave fans the chance to create identical cups.
Furthermore, hundreds of uniquely designed billboards lined the streets across Israel, extending the campaign’s reach and generating fan buzz.
The campaign created a huge buzz on social media – some items were even selling on Ebay. “While no other bottle in the world looked the same, each billboard was also unique,” says Saar.
The marketing campaign also featured hundreds of uniquely designed billboards, as well as point-of-sale stands together with T-shirts and other merchandise.
Taking on the challenge of conveying the “Stay Extraordinary” message was The Gefen Team, who were also heavily involved in the personalised billboards part of the campaign. It adds: “Every bottle looked different from the other, and every billboard looked different from the other. ”
Sales surge
Saar says that there were very good results in terms of brand equity and brand sales. Coca-Coca Israel announced a 2.1% increase in sales since the campaign was launched, as well as a 3% increase in brand preference and 2% increase in purchase intent.
Alon Zamir, vice president of marketing for Coca-Cola Israel, said: “We are proud to launch such a complex, innovative and extraordinary campaign which will convey to all Diet-Coke consumers how extraordinary they are themselves.”
Saar added: “Regarding the future, as always, Diet-Coke and in Coca-Cola brands strive to be innovative and fashionable therefore we are sure that we will have more personal innovation campaigns in the future.”
Coca-Cola lovers, watch this space.
