If I was to ask you what you thought the most iconic brand is, what would you say?
I bet you said Coke, Coca-Cola
Its a common understanding in the Advertising industry, that consumers are becoming more and more demanding to that of brands. They are wanting a more engaged experience when interacting with various brands, this is seen through the various social media sites and multi-platform technology that is making its way into advertising campaigns. Brands are interacting with consumers on a regular basis, but is it personalised? What is a personalised experience? Digitally a personalised experience is generated through targeting and tracking a consumers behaviour across various websites. Developing a customer profile based upon actions the customer has taken.
In real life a personalised experience is generally in the form a loyalty card, Tescos for example have a great one. Providing coupons specific to what you purchase, based upon your shopping cart when you scan your club card. I imagine you haven't been living under a rock the past week, and have been into a connivence store or even a grocery store and seen Coca-Cola's take on a personalised experience.
The UK campaign is taking the top 150 most popular names and replacing the iconic logo with a name. I spotted them on Saturday on my way into London, so of course since I have never had trouble finding my name in 'named' goods I started looking, after a few minutes I discovered my name!! Only it was on a Diet Coke.. and I don't like Diet, naturally I bought it anyway!
Being me, I posted it on Instagram. I had to have a good look at the bottle, knowing it was a new campaign I was curious, was there a # ? I was very surprised that a campaign this big didn't have one, what I did discover about the campaign while looking for said hashtag was the assumed title 'share a coke'. I then got on my iPhone and searched, was this the hashtag? For being such a huge brand, and this being a brand new campaign in the supposide digital world, I am not impressed. It's cool and a novilty, but to be honest the bottle made it back home but the next day it was tossed in the bin. I didn't feel more connected to Coke because my name is on of the top 100 most popular UK names for girls.
It was exciting to look for it, disappointing if you can't find your name, and fun for about 10 minutes while you are sharing it on various social platforms. But it stops there, and I won't be looking for my name again, in fact it wont make me chose Coke over another branded drink. I have been into Tesco's since, in fact wanting to purchase a Coke, however not being able to find one with my name I opted for a juice.. I wonder how many others are opting for an alternative drink because of the same reason, why would you want to buy a bottle without your name on it? Saying that a few friends have posted pictures of their friends names or their middle names when their own is not there.
What do you think of Coke's new 'share a coke' campaign, have you found your name?
Heres the list of names if you are wondering if yours is included! Share a Coke.
