Showing posts with label Digital Marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Digital Marketing. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Coca-Cola adopts aggressive Digital Marketing

Coca-Cola, the US soft drinks giant, will adopt a "far more aggressive digital presence" as it seeks to respond to "dramatic changes" in consumer behaviour, according to Joseph Tripodi, the company's chief marketing and commercial officer.
"One of the things we're talking about now is how we evolve as a marketing entity around the world. We're pushing for a far more aggressive digital presence," Tripodi said.
This will include moving beyond traditional marketing techniques, and developing material that will positively engage its target audience.
"What we're going for more and more will be developing compelling content. Some will be consumer-generated, some of it we'll buy, some of it we'll create ourselves. The idea is to flex that content out over different digital endpoints," he said.
One of the Atlanta-based firm's primary innovations in this area to date has been establishing platforms that allow its customers to exchange the "points" they accrue when buying its brands for a range of products.
This initiative is known as My Coke Rewards in the US and CokeZone in the UK, and offers a variety of valuable information to the beverage maker about its customers.
"With My Coke Rewards we have 13 million names. With that kind of database you can build relationships with consumers that are very different from the ones you gain through TV ads," Tripdoi said.
Moreover, once web users become involved in this sort of programme, it means "you start evolve your thinking about how to engage them, beyond giving away T-shirts," he continued.
The American corporation recently announced a new competition, called the Sounds of Coca-Cola, asking people to submit videos in which they replicate the noises they associate with opening, pouring and drinking Coke.
To enter, participants need to visit Facebook, the social network, to find out the details, and then use an "app" to upload their entry, with the best efforts possibly going on to feature in an ad campaign.
Katie Bayne, chief marketing officer of Coca-Cola North America, said "we know there's nothing quite like drinking a Coca-Cola, so if people share their interpretations of how that sounds, have fun and make us thirsty, we may put them in a Coca-Cola commercial."
Similarly, at a Mobile Marketing Forum event this month, Hinde Pagani, Coca-Cola's senior mobile marketing manager, global interactive marketing, indicated this channel would be of increased importance going forward.
"Consumers are changing. Audiences are changing dramatically, especially the younger ones. They live with technology, using it to consume more media, generate more conversations and befriend more brands than ever," she said.
"Mobile is at the centre of this media revolution. For us it is critical to understand this new device, to interact with teens and youth where they spend their time and deliver engaging and compelling brand experiences. So we add mobile to the marketing mix in pretty much all of our markets."
Earlier this year, Coca-Cola launched an iPhone application, the Magic Coke Bottle, which answers "questions about life, love and the universe."

Mercedes Spending maximum on Digital Marketing in UK

Mercedes-Benz, the luxury automaker, currently directs around half of its marketing budget in the UK to digital media, an approach it has adopted in response to changing behaviour among consumers in the country.

Anders Sundt Jensen, its vice president for brand communications, said digital is responsible for a higher share of its outlay in Britain than elsewhere in Europe, where this figure is typically well under 40%.

One of the key strategies adopted by the German firm has been to establish an in-house team with an expert understanding of how channels like the internet can best be utilised for commercial means.

"We don't have normal marketers just doing online ads, or just putting our TV ads online. For example, we have a whole department at our headquarters in Germany just doing digital marketing," Jensen argued.

A major challenge for brands using the web, however, is identifying which portals will offer a return on investment, and those that are unlikely to provide long-term payback.

"Two years ago there was so much hype around Second Life, and where is that today? The hype can make it hard to see what really is great and where to invest online," he argued.

Speaking at the same event as Jensen, Bernhard Glock, who will soon leave his role as Procter & Gamble's vice president of global media and communications, emphasised that privacy was a key issue.

"There are many areas where digital can lead the way. But there are also areas where it can be very dangerous. Experiment, but be very careful. Of all media in our research, digital is the least trusted, and word of mouth the most trusted."

"Even though social media is word of mouth, it's dangerous if you don't respect people's privacy, especially kids. We need to be very careful otherwise we'll be beaten by the regulator," he added.


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