As we live in a digital-driven economy, the use of digital marketing is very important as it helps to reach and engage target audiences. When a digital marketing campaign is done properly it can achieve great results, one example of an extremely successful campaign is the Share a Coke campaign done by Coca Cola in 2011 in Australia. The aim of this campaign was to increase millennial sales and to bring the brand closer to young adults, as Coca Cola found that the younger generation thought the brand was out-dated.
To achieve this Coca Cola changed the labels of their bottles and cans and replaced the usual logo with ‘Share a Coke with’ and then used popular names within their country. This gave the campaign a personalized experience and made the consumers feel included and important. This user-generated content motivated young people to share photos of their personalised bottles on social media, using the hashtag #ShareaCoke. They also introduced kiosks across Australia where people could type in their names and produce their very own personalised coke can, this became so popular that people waited hours in line just to create their own. Another innovated idea to the campaign was the use of the digital billboards, which allowed people to text Coca Cola with their name and watch it appear on the billboard in real time. Encouraging once again for people to take a photo and post it on social media, each photo that was shared was a personal endorsement which led to ground breaking marketing success.
Coca Cola didn’t just end up selling a product but created a social phenomenon by using the correct marketing strategy, which led to thousands of photos being shared on social media as well as more followers and an increase of web traffic on their website. Over 70 different countries embraced this campaign, and it worked just as flawlessly in every single one. Since the Coca Cola campaign in 2011 there are now new forms of digital marketing such as the use of influencers, these are people who have a large following on social media platforms allowing companies to target a single person and reaching a whole audience.
Non-profit organisations also use social media platforms to reach a larger audience and create more awareness for their charity. They also use email marketing; this is where a viewer using their website would sign up to the organisations newsletter and they would receive email updated on ongoing funding efforts, news articles and event information, this helps keep the origination relevant in the viewers minds. There are many forms of different digital marketing strategies, which all have different purposes and choosing the right strategies are key to creating a successful campaign.
Referencing –
The Coca-Cola Company (2024) Refresh The World.
https://www.coca-colacompany.com/ [Accessed 04/11/2024].
Coca-Cola Bottling Company United (2015) Share a Coke: Bigger and Better Than Ever. https://cocacolaunited.com/blog/2015/05/18/share-coke-bigger-better-ever/ [04/11/2024].
The Coca-Cola Company (2016) How the Groundbreaking Campaign Got its Start ‘Down Under’. https://www.coca-cola.com/au/en/media-center/share-a-coke-how-the-groundbreaking-campaign-got-its-start-down-under [04/11/2024].