While thirsty for marketshare, Coke brings drinkable commercials to football.
Coke Zero celebrates third year of partnership with largest fully integrated campaign yet, to get fans even more excited for game day through drinkable advertising.
Coca-Cola’s Coke Zero brand is 10 years old (and became a billion dollar brand in only 2 years) which may or may not come as a shock (as the product is not much more than a masculine adaptation of Diet Coke), but you will be shocked to find out that in the fall you will be able to get a free Coke Zero instantly…THROUGH YOUR TV. It’s got to be too good to be true, right?! When did reality morph into an episode of The Jetsons? !
The new campaign this fall in conjunction with ESPN’s College Gameday is called, “You Don’t Know Zero ‘Till You’ve Tried It”. Many of the ads include ESPN personalities such as Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit and will direct viewers to open the Shazam App on their smart phone or tablet and hold it near the ad. There will be a bottle of Coke Zero pouring on TV into a digital glass on the viewer’s device. Along with a refreshing class of digital Coke Zero the viewer will be delivered a coupon for a free 20-ounce bottle that will be redeemable at retailers including 7-Eleven, QuickTrip, Speedway, and Domino’s.
I’m a sucker for a free product and I do love the occasional Coke product, but this seems like quite the financial undertaking for a product that is already successful and is a mere clone of your own already existing product. Differencebetween.net has done some further scientific research to back my earlier claim; Coke Zero is just Diet Coke in a masculine guise. But here’s the rub, Coke Zero may actually be hurting it’s “feminine” counterpart. As Coke Zero has rose (6% growth in the second quarter) Diet Coke is down 6% in the last year. Now, this may certainly be a logical fallacy, and Coke’s new gimmicks such as “drinkable jerseys” are appealing, the product remains the same.
It surely seems as if Coca-Cola is growing one of it’s brands at the cost of another, this may be the strategy they are aiming for, but it’s got be wondering, will this new offensive tactic lead to Coca-Cola playing defense against themselves?
Howard Davidson Arlington MA