7 ms·

Coca-cola nails social media by releasing personalized bottles

82 points by dirtyaura 14y ago

pan69 14y ago
Was already done about a year ago here in Australia: http://mumbrella.com.au/coca-cola-puts-peoples-names-on-bottles-in-share-a-coke-campaign-59657 http://mumbrella.com.au/coca-cola-puts-peoples-names-on-bott... Not sure about the rest of the world.
compsciphd 14y ago
this reminds me of the keychains I used to see at highway rest stops that had all sorts of people's names on them. Always wondered who bought them (especially as no one in my family has a "popular" name).
- sjm 14y ago
  When they did this in Australia, they had quite a lot of foreign and otherwise less-common names included. There was also things like "Share a coke with your Mate", "Share a coke with your Bro", "Share a coke with your Boss", etc.
- rWolfcastle 14y ago
  Bart: (looking at license plates) Hmmm... Barclay, Barry, Bert, Bort!? Oh, come on... Bort? Kid: Mommy, mommy! Buy me a license plate! Lady: No, come along, Bort. Man: Hey, you talking to me? Lady: No, my son is also named 'Bort'.
- Domenic_S 14y ago
  > Always wondered who bought them (especially as no one in my family has a "popular" name). People with popular names probably bought them, right? Does this even need to be said...?
DrStalker 14y ago
In Australia they did this a year ago - predictably using common names with a scattering of rare names. Then they did "relationship" ones - sister, boss, mother, etc. At one stage I saw a coke event of some sort in a mall that looked like you could line up and get a bottle custom printed with any name on it. It was definitely successful increasing the amount of people talking about coke, even if only to lament that they'd never be able to find their name.
- wisty 14y ago
  Also, Will Anderson (from Gruen Planet) found you couldn't order ones labeled "Pepsi" or "Urine", but you could order one for "Dia" and another for "Betes".
  - sjwright 14y ago
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb_I95JkFLc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb_I95JkFLc
- sdiwakar 14y ago
  Every time someone managed to get a custom printed Coke bottle - the proud owner inevitably photographed the bottle for display on Facebook - which of course is the real genius behind their marketing campaign. It may have been an expensive marketing exercise for Coca-Cola, but being so different definitely grabs headlines.
- justatdotin 14y ago
  and, at the same time, in response to proposals for federal laws to replicate successful SA and NT container deposit schemes, they were whining to government that the cost of printing '10c deposit refunded upon return' on their labels would be unbearable ...
- jamesrom 14y ago
  I never once saw a James (my own name). It could be confirmation bias, but I swear very common names were not printed as often to keep more people looking for their own names. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=common+names http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=common+names
- barbs 14y ago
  Yep, my friend lined up to get one, the line was massive. It took him maybe half an hour when we went, but later the line was about 4 times as long.
jdn1000 14y ago
How easily we are amused. How quickly we classify things as genius.
- goatforce5 14y ago
  The campaign was running when I was in Australia for a few weeks at the beginning of the year. Such a simple but great marketing campaign. And it must have worked, because on three separate occasions I bought Cokes when I was intending to, to take pics of the bottles and send back to unsuspecting friends in North America.
- sp332 14y ago
  It was called "genius" because it turned an impersonal object into its opposite (a personalized object) and did it really, really successfully.
the_bear 14y ago
It wouldn't surprise me if this benefits Coke by making consumers more interested, but hurts Coke by pissing off store owners. Most stores that sell soda are set up for the consumer to take the soda from the front of a long row, and then the row slides up in the display. I'd guess that some customers would create a mess trying to find their name and not bother to clean it up (if they can - many soda refrigerators can only be easily loaded from the back). If my speculation is true, that probably gives store owners an incentive to de-emphasize the placement of the Coke so that random browsers will be less likely to create a huge mess. Obviously store owners have to sell Coca-Cola because some customers are specifically looking for it, but they don't have to give it prime real estate.
- Kerrick 14y ago
  Or, it may give store owners an incentive to give Coke more shelf space, so consumers can see more names at once.
  - delinka 14y ago
    "...give Coke more shelf space..." (emphasis mine) Not to be pedantic, but most of my local stores (Big Box and one-off convenience stores) charge for shelf and floor space. Basically, charging rent for the location soft drinks are offered. If Coke wants more room, Coke has to negotiate for more room. As for me, if I'm buying Coke at a convenience store for a drink on the road, I only care that the bottle says "Coca Cola" and I'm taking the coldest or frontmost bottle.
    - r00fus 14y ago
      Exactly, stores in meatspace don't care too much about eyeballs (unless they're prominently placed ones - which double as billboards). They care about $sales/sqft because they have to pay the rent and the stuff that pays better will get more shelf space. I'm doubtful, but it's possible that personalized coke bottles could end up selling other stuff too, but it better be like crack or it's not gonna get more shelf space.
- TimJRobinson 14y ago
veb 14y ago
I'm in New Zealand myself, and I really hate this. I drink Coke as a guilty pleasure, but when they bought this in I got really turned off. I'm not going to drink Coke that's for "Callum", "Katherine" or <random name that's not mine nor my wifes>. Major turn off. I would really like to see if this promotion actually works.
- mahmud 14y ago
  Get yourself a stubby holder, BOOM!
- batiudrami 14y ago
  I can't imagine allowing something like this to bother me - it's just a name on a disposable bottle. Are you sure you're not railing against it because you don't like seeing the marketing being so successful on social networks?
  - veb 14y ago
    ... how is it being successful on social networks anyway? I haven't seen anything about this on Facebook. It just feels like the bottle belongs to someone else. I'm allowed to feel weird, if I want.
    - batiudrami 14y ago
      I don't know if it's successful in NZ or not, but when it ran in Australia a year or so back you barely went a day without someone posting a picture of them with their name on the bottle.
    - nchlswu 14y ago
      Perhaps you just have a network that wouldn't react to this promotion. That's fine, and you're allowed to feel fine. I think this is a promotion stands out* because it appears to me that the promotion is primarily driven by a "real world" (read: physical) product that is being shared online as opposed to a social media campaign reliant on traditional "sharing." People are actually compelled to take a picture and share the product online; not just click a "share" or "like" button *I say stands out, because successful obviously depends on the chosen metrics.
biot 14y ago
Jones Soda has been doing this since the late 90s: http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20000529&slug=4023748 http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=200... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jones_Soda#myJones http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jones_Soda#myJones
- s_henry_paulson 14y ago
  To be fair, this is completely different.
vangar 14y ago
Happened and died in Australia already. It wasn't that successful.
practutor 14y ago
good news......
cstrat 14y ago
Yeah I thought it was a brilliant success in Australia. Like the author of the article states - you wouldnt go a day without seeing a bottle in your feed. It was pretty active for at least 6 months before it died down. I dont drink coke, but I did enjoy the fad.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
draftable 14y ago
Typical Kiwis. Years behind the Aussies.
- capex 14y ago
  And Aussies years behind xx. No point saying that 'mate'.
treelovinhippie 14y ago
What I want to see (and somewhat of a prediction) is for CocaCola to have a campaign where users connect with Facebook, CocaCola collects all of their information - for good purposes of course ;) ...and then print personalized labels with the user's actual Facebook profile pic. They'd know the user's location, so they'd just need to workout how to distribute those bottles to local distributors. If people are stupid enough to search for a common name on a coke bottle, then they'll go apeshit searching their local retailers for their actual Facebook picture (and those of their friends). Coke should give me a royalty for this :)
- weego 14y ago
  They would probably get sued for misrepresentation (aligning someones image with a brand is not a right unless you sign waivers, which granted some people would do). Names are generic hence you can get away with it. Also it would feel more lik missing persons on milk cartons than social brilliance. Edit: Wait, should I be hearing a whoosh sound about now?
  - treelovinhippie 14y ago
    All you do is include the waiver and terms when they connect on Facebook. I'm not saying print random user profile pics. They'd have to connect first.
shannon_b 14y ago
I work in retail, and the amount of times I'd see customers moving coke bottles all over the shelf just so they could find particular names, it was just astounding. Infuriating, but somewhat clever marketing.
tzm 14y ago
Coca-Cola is experimenting with a "smart" soda machine (dubbed "Freestyle") that lets you share personalized mix/match flavors with your friends. It comes loaded with over 100 brands. They also had a mobile app to send a Coke to a stranger, which was part of an advertising campaign. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45Z-GevoYB8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45Z-GevoYB8
- joezydeco 14y ago
  The Freestyle is already deployed. Five Guys is installing them in as many stores as they can, and I recently went through a Wendy's drive-thru that had one, although I'm not sure how one uses it that way.
  - tzm 14y ago
    Yep, they are deploying nationwide. The one I saw recently was a prototype that had wifi and social integration, etc.
mcpie 14y ago
Vedett, a Belgian beer brewery, has been doing something similar / doing it better. It prints user-uploaded pictures on all their bottles. It's pretty cool and has made the beer quite popular among the 'creative avant-garde' (or whatever we call 'em these days): http://www.vedett.be/ http://www.vedett.be/
lmferreira 14y ago
They're doing the same here in Brazil: http://translate.google.com/translate?twu=1?sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A//www.meioemensagem.com.br/home/comunicacao/noticias/2012/07/31/Coca-Zero-imprime-nomes-em-embalagens.html http://translate.google.com/translate?twu=1?sl=auto&tl=e...
89a 14y ago
christ people are fucking stupid if simply seeing their name written somewhere pleases them that much
- peterwwillis 14y ago
  ..... Welcome to humanity. Would you like a Coke?
squid_ca 14y ago
I thought social media was something to do with connecting users on the web, not printing statistically relevant names on products.
- jmduke 14y ago
  Jim wants a Coke. Jim finds a Coke with his name on it! Jim says, "Hey, that's pretty neat." Jim posts an Instagram of him next to his personal Coke. Jenny sees Jim's post and comments -- "Hey, that's pretty neat. Where can I get one with Jenny on it?"
  - squid_ca 14y ago
    That's not "nailing" social media. That's creating a clever marketing trick and then being happy that people shared it on social media. Did PSY "nail" social media because people "Liked" his video? Did <insert group name here> "nail" social media because your aunt forwarded their spam to you? Did some band "not nail" social media because their video didn't go viral? Coke advertised their product. Some people got excited, and told their friends on social media. Just like other things. Coke didn't do anything special with social media, they just counted on people using it. Big deal.

82 points by dirtyaura 14y ago

pan69 14y ago

Was already done about a year ago here in Australia: http://mumbrella.com.au/coca-cola-puts-peoples-names-on-bottles-in-share-a-coke-campaign-59657 http://mumbrella.com.au/coca-cola-puts-peoples-names-on-bott... Not sure about the rest of the world.

compsciphd 14y ago

this reminds me of the keychains I used to see at highway rest stops that had all sorts of people's names on them. Always wondered who bought them (especially as no one in my family has a "popular" name).

sjm 14y ago
When they did this in Australia, they had quite a lot of foreign and otherwise less-common names included. There was also things like "Share a coke with your Mate", "Share a coke with your Bro", "Share a coke with your Boss", etc.
rWolfcastle 14y ago
Bart: (looking at license plates) Hmmm... Barclay, Barry, Bert, Bort!? Oh, come on... Bort? Kid: Mommy, mommy! Buy me a license plate! Lady: No, come along, Bort. Man: Hey, you talking to me? Lady: No, my son is also named 'Bort'.
Domenic_S 14y ago
> Always wondered who bought them (especially as no one in my family has a "popular" name). People with popular names probably bought them, right? Does this even need to be said...?

DrStalker 14y ago

In Australia they did this a year ago - predictably using common names with a scattering of rare names. Then they did "relationship" ones - sister, boss, mother, etc. At one stage I saw a coke event of some sort in a mall that looked like you could line up and get a bottle custom printed with any name on it. It was definitely successful increasing the amount of people talking about coke, even if only to lament that they'd never be able to find their name.

wisty 14y ago
Also, Will Anderson (from Gruen Planet) found you couldn't order ones labeled "Pepsi" or "Urine", but you could order one for "Dia" and another for "Betes".
- sjwright 14y ago
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb_I95JkFLc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb_I95JkFLc
sdiwakar 14y ago
Every time someone managed to get a custom printed Coke bottle - the proud owner inevitably photographed the bottle for display on Facebook - which of course is the real genius behind their marketing campaign. It may have been an expensive marketing exercise for Coca-Cola, but being so different definitely grabs headlines.
justatdotin 14y ago
and, at the same time, in response to proposals for federal laws to replicate successful SA and NT container deposit schemes, they were whining to government that the cost of printing '10c deposit refunded upon return' on their labels would be unbearable ...
jamesrom 14y ago
I never once saw a James (my own name). It could be confirmation bias, but I swear very common names were not printed as often to keep more people looking for their own names. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=common+names http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=common+names
barbs 14y ago
Yep, my friend lined up to get one, the line was massive. It took him maybe half an hour when we went, but later the line was about 4 times as long.

jdn1000 14y ago

How easily we are amused. How quickly we classify things as genius.

goatforce5 14y ago
The campaign was running when I was in Australia for a few weeks at the beginning of the year. Such a simple but great marketing campaign. And it must have worked, because on three separate occasions I bought Cokes when I was intending to, to take pics of the bottles and send back to unsuspecting friends in North America.
sp332 14y ago
It was called "genius" because it turned an impersonal object into its opposite (a personalized object) and did it really, really successfully.

the_bear 14y ago

It wouldn't surprise me if this benefits Coke by making consumers more interested, but hurts Coke by pissing off store owners. Most stores that sell soda are set up for the consumer to take the soda from the front of a long row, and then the row slides up in the display. I'd guess that some customers would create a mess trying to find their name and not bother to clean it up (if they can - many soda refrigerators can only be easily loaded from the back). If my speculation is true, that probably gives store owners an incentive to de-emphasize the placement of the Coke so that random browsers will be less likely to create a huge mess. Obviously store owners have to sell Coca-Cola because some customers are specifically looking for it, but they don't have to give it prime real estate.

Kerrick 14y ago
Or, it may give store owners an incentive to give Coke more shelf space, so consumers can see more names at once.
- delinka 14y ago
  "...give Coke more shelf space..." (emphasis mine) Not to be pedantic, but most of my local stores (Big Box and one-off convenience stores) charge for shelf and floor space. Basically, charging rent for the location soft drinks are offered. If Coke wants more room, Coke has to negotiate for more room. As for me, if I'm buying Coke at a convenience store for a drink on the road, I only care that the bottle says "Coca Cola" and I'm taking the coldest or frontmost bottle.
  - r00fus 14y ago
    Exactly, stores in meatspace don't care too much about eyeballs (unless they're prominently placed ones - which double as billboards). They care about $sales/sqft because they have to pay the rent and the stuff that pays better will get more shelf space. I'm doubtful, but it's possible that personalized coke bottles could end up selling other stuff too, but it better be like crack or it's not gonna get more shelf space.
TimJRobinson 14y ago

veb 14y ago

I'm in New Zealand myself, and I really hate this. I drink Coke as a guilty pleasure, but when they bought this in I got really turned off. I'm not going to drink Coke that's for "Callum", "Katherine" or <random name that's not mine nor my wifes>. Major turn off. I would really like to see if this promotion actually works.

mahmud 14y ago
Get yourself a stubby holder, BOOM!
batiudrami 14y ago
I can't imagine allowing something like this to bother me - it's just a name on a disposable bottle. Are you sure you're not railing against it because you don't like seeing the marketing being so successful on social networks?
- veb 14y ago
  ... how is it being successful on social networks anyway? I haven't seen anything about this on Facebook. It just feels like the bottle belongs to someone else. I'm allowed to feel weird, if I want.
  - batiudrami 14y ago
    I don't know if it's successful in NZ or not, but when it ran in Australia a year or so back you barely went a day without someone posting a picture of them with their name on the bottle.
  - nchlswu 14y ago
    Perhaps you just have a network that wouldn't react to this promotion. That's fine, and you're allowed to feel fine. I think this is a promotion stands out* because it appears to me that the promotion is primarily driven by a "real world" (read: physical) product that is being shared online as opposed to a social media campaign reliant on traditional "sharing." People are actually compelled to take a picture and share the product online; not just click a "share" or "like" button *I say stands out, because successful obviously depends on the chosen metrics.

biot 14y ago

Jones Soda has been doing this since the late 90s: http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20000529&slug=4023748 http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=200... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jones_Soda#myJones http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jones_Soda#myJones

s_henry_paulson 14y ago
To be fair, this is completely different.

vangar 14y ago

Happened and died in Australia already. It wasn't that successful.

practutor 14y ago

good news......

cstrat 14y ago

Yeah I thought it was a brilliant success in Australia. Like the author of the article states - you wouldnt go a day without seeing a bottle in your feed. It was pretty active for at least 6 months before it died down. I dont drink coke, but I did enjoy the fad.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

draftable 14y ago

Typical Kiwis. Years behind the Aussies.

capex 14y ago
And Aussies years behind xx. No point saying that 'mate'.

treelovinhippie 14y ago

What I want to see (and somewhat of a prediction) is for CocaCola to have a campaign where users connect with Facebook, CocaCola collects all of their information - for good purposes of course ;) ...and then print personalized labels with the user's actual Facebook profile pic. They'd know the user's location, so they'd just need to workout how to distribute those bottles to local distributors. If people are stupid enough to search for a common name on a coke bottle, then they'll go apeshit searching their local retailers for their actual Facebook picture (and those of their friends). Coke should give me a royalty for this :)

weego 14y ago
They would probably get sued for misrepresentation (aligning someones image with a brand is not a right unless you sign waivers, which granted some people would do). Names are generic hence you can get away with it. Also it would feel more lik missing persons on milk cartons than social brilliance. Edit: Wait, should I be hearing a whoosh sound about now?
- treelovinhippie 14y ago
  All you do is include the waiver and terms when they connect on Facebook. I'm not saying print random user profile pics. They'd have to connect first.

shannon_b 14y ago

I work in retail, and the amount of times I'd see customers moving coke bottles all over the shelf just so they could find particular names, it was just astounding. Infuriating, but somewhat clever marketing.

tzm 14y ago

Coca-Cola is experimenting with a "smart" soda machine (dubbed "Freestyle") that lets you share personalized mix/match flavors with your friends. It comes loaded with over 100 brands. They also had a mobile app to send a Coke to a stranger, which was part of an advertising campaign. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45Z-GevoYB8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45Z-GevoYB8

joezydeco 14y ago
The Freestyle is already deployed. Five Guys is installing them in as many stores as they can, and I recently went through a Wendy's drive-thru that had one, although I'm not sure how one uses it that way.
- tzm 14y ago
  Yep, they are deploying nationwide. The one I saw recently was a prototype that had wifi and social integration, etc.

mcpie 14y ago

Vedett, a Belgian beer brewery, has been doing something similar / doing it better. It prints user-uploaded pictures on all their bottles. It's pretty cool and has made the beer quite popular among the 'creative avant-garde' (or whatever we call 'em these days): http://www.vedett.be/ http://www.vedett.be/

lmferreira 14y ago

They're doing the same here in Brazil: http://translate.google.com/translate?twu=1?sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A//www.meioemensagem.com.br/home/comunicacao/noticias/2012/07/31/Coca-Zero-imprime-nomes-em-embalagens.html http://translate.google.com/translate?twu=1?sl=auto&tl=e...

89a 14y ago

christ people are fucking stupid if simply seeing their name written somewhere pleases them that much

peterwwillis 14y ago
..... Welcome to humanity. Would you like a Coke?

squid_ca 14y ago

I thought social media was something to do with connecting users on the web, not printing statistically relevant names on products.

jmduke 14y ago
Jim wants a Coke. Jim finds a Coke with his name on it! Jim says, "Hey, that's pretty neat." Jim posts an Instagram of him next to his personal Coke. Jenny sees Jim's post and comments -- "Hey, that's pretty neat. Where can I get one with Jenny on it?"
- squid_ca 14y ago
  That's not "nailing" social media. That's creating a clever marketing trick and then being happy that people shared it on social media. Did PSY "nail" social media because people "Liked" his video? Did <insert group name here> "nail" social media because your aunt forwarded their spam to you? Did some band "not nail" social media because their video didn't go viral? Coke advertised their product. Some people got excited, and told their friends on social media. Just like other things. Coke didn't do anything special with social media, they just counted on people using it. Big deal.