I Believe Introductions Are In Order..

Hello and welcome to this blog dedicated to reviewing the Coke-Zero marketing campaign in Australia. The aim of this assignment for Marketing Communications is to research the success or failure of a marketing campaign and any controversy that may be associated with it. Since this was assigned I've kept an eye out for any current campaigns that have caught my eye.I noticed recently that the city seems to be covered in Coke-Zero advertisements so I figured this would be an interesting one to look into.

Image from Google Images

Coca-Cola-Zero, or Coke-Zero,  was launched by the Coca-Cola Company in Australia in January 2006 (Coke-Zero Website, 2012). Its strategy since release has been to be presented as the calorie free alternative to orginal Coca-Cola while still maintaining the same flavour as orignal Coke. Coke-Zero has mainly been targeting young adult males who are looking for a soft drink that has zero calories but isn't "Diet" which is usually targeted to women. This blog is focusing on the 2012 Campaigns currently running and reviewing whether they are still targeting the same audience and whether their communication techniques are effective.

At First Glance

The first Coke-Zero advertising I noticed was Outdoor, specifically bus advertisments. These were eye-catching and because there were so many of them plastered on buses all around Sydney I figured there must be more of the campaign still emerging. The bus ads run the full length of the bus on some and just a section on others. Along with a picture of the bottle is a tagline that reads either "Tastes like Coke. No Joke" or "Real Coca-Cola taste with zero sugar". I believe these advertisements are effective in reaching a mass number of people, not only those using public transport but also anyone walking around in the city. However, I'm not sure this particular advertisement is effective in creating cut-through with consumers. They are using facts that most consumers already know by now, Coke-Zero has been on the market in Australia for over six years after all. There is nothing new or exciting being presented to consumers and therefore, it could be lost on a lot of people. If this was the only aspect of the marketing campaign, I'm not sure it would work for the company. Luckily, this was not the case for Coke-Zero.

Image from APN Outdoor Website Available Here

Image from APN Outdoor Website Available Here

Social Media



Screen capture of Coke-Zero Facebook page

I think it is rare to find a marketing campaign recently that hasn't utilised social media in one form are another. Some campaigns are even using it as their only channel of communication. Coke-Zero has also created various accounts for their product as well as their own personal corporate website. Their Facebook page for Australia, available here, currently has had over 125 thousand "Likes" and their global account, available here, has over one million. Coke Zero also has a Twitter account, @CokeZero with a little over 16 thousand followers. Clearly, their biggest account is the global Facebook page, launched in 2005 in the United States. Coke-Zero uses these accounts to keep in touch with fans and make sure they are all up to date on what is new with the product. Social media allows consumers to interact further with the brand and it has allowed marketing to grow into a conversation rather than one-way communication. I believe Coke-Zero has made a good decision in choosing to use Facebook and Twitter to their advantage, but their best choice of social media at the moment is YouTube.




Screen capture of Coke-Zero Twitter account

Youtube + National Rugby League = Success

Image from Google Images

As I mentioned previously, in my opinion one of the more innovative aspects of Coke-Zero's marketing communications is through their YouTube account which has over 2 million unique video views. To help drive brand favourability with their young male audience Coke Zero target a key passion point for that audience.  This is something they do all over the world but specifically in Australia they have teamed up with NRL, Australia's National Rugby League, to encourage guys to get behind their team with Coke Zero. 

Screen capture of Coke-Zero Youtube Account

They have devised a competition between different teams in the NRL to post videos of their team members completing all different skill challenges set out by Coke-Zero. Once the videos are posted, fans have the ability to vote for which team they think did the best job and show their pride for their team. The campaign is called "The Coke-Zero 'Time to Zero In Challenge'" and can be found on their YouTube account here. At the beginning of every video, the Coke-Zero symbol is displayed along with text reading "If great Coke taste & zero sugar is possible, what else is possible?" and then the name of the challenge being sent to each NRL team.

Screen capture of video example along with votes being calculated

 I think this is an excellent way for Coke-Zero to reach their target audience of young adult males, especially in Australia where NRL is so popular. You Tube performs a crucial and different role in their communications and allows Coke Zero to be more innovative than their bus or social media communications and really engage the consumer with something that interests them. It encourages consumers to spend time with the brand. Coke Zero also target NRL content in key environments through pre rolls before live game coverage or highlights on the NRL Website. These pre rolls play beforehand showing the Coke-Zero Challenge advertisement. In targeting young adult males, I believe this was the best communication tool used by Coke-Zero in this years' marketing communications.

An Interesting Angle

Screen capture of "Cinema Challenge" advertisement

The last piece of marketing communication I noticed in the Coke-Zero campaign was in cinemas and online. The video that aired is available here and it shows a hidden camera in a movie theatre with lots of people drinking Coke - or so they think. A man appears on the movie screen and tells the viewers that he was the one who served them their Cokes and he'd made a switch. The people in the audience are then instructed to look under their Coke cup where they find they have actually been drinking Coke-Zero. This is an interesting angle that Coke-Zero has taken because they are technically trying to convince consumers to drink Coke-Zero and stop buying their mother brand, Coca-Cola Original. This could be a form of brand cannibalisation for Coke; where consumers that have usually bought regular Coke are now switching to Coke-Zero and therefore destroying the collection of customers buying Coca-Cola Original. In taking this risk, Coke must have done some sort of research to ensure that this would instead bring in new customers rather than just moving existing customers to the new brand extension. I think this was risky for Coke to do, but it is something different that I have personally never seen done before and therefore would be effective.

Screen capture of viewers finding out about Coke-Zero switch

In Conclusion...

After carefully examining the different aspects of the integrated marketing communications set out by Coke-Zero, I would say that overall their campaign is effective in engaging their target audience. Their first part, outdoor advertisement, is effective in getting the attention of the entire market, including the target audience as well as secondary audiences. The advertisements on the buses were eye-catching in their size and quantity but other than that there was nothing really keeping it in the consumer's mind for very long. Coke-Zero effectively used social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to create buzz about their brand and stay relevant in consumers' minds through status updates and tweets. The target audience of Coke-Zero is young adult males, and by combining their brand with the NRL they have successfully reached this audience. Young adult males generally love sports, especially team pride, and by using a competition online Coke Zero has gained the attention of this segment of the market. Lastly, through a clever campaign aimed at moving Coca-Cola Original drinkers to Coke-Zero drinkers, the brand has made something interesting enough to stay in a consumer's thoughts for long enough to possibly enable purchase behaviour. All together, I think Coke-Zero has created a fairly good integrated marketing communication campaign that will stick out to consumers and their target audience.

References

Work References

Coke-Zero Official Australian Website. Accessed April 3 2012, Available: http://www.coca-cola.com.au/index.jsp

Coke-Zero Facebook Page. Accessed April 5 2012, Available: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/cocacolazero

Coke-Zero Australia Facebook Page. Accessed April 5 2012, Available: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/CokeZeroAustralia

Coke-Zero Twitter Account. Accessed April 5 2012, Available: https://twitter.com/#!/CokeZero

Coke-Zero Australia YouTube Account. Accessed April 10 2012, Available: http://www.youtube.com/user/CokeZeroAus?feature=watch

National Rugby League Website. Accessed April 10 2012, Available: http://nrl.com/

“Coke Zero launches NRL footy competition” Mumbrella. Accessed April 10 2012, Available: http://mumbrella.com.au/coke-zero-launches-nrl-footy-skills-contest-85656

Picture References

Coke-Zero Image, Google Images. Accessed April 3 2012, Available: http://www.google.com.au/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&biw=1366&bih=650&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=6fyz_atdc96DgM:&imgrefurl=http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1704145/coke_zero_banned_in_venezuela/&docid=wxWgocnK2Q9ycM&imgurl=http://www.redorbit.com/media/uploads/2009/06/e0129e7f98de09d870b20755a94f947c1.jpg&w=568&h=360&ei=BQaaT-eqIuvJmAXA__2yDg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=1041&vpy=194&dur=870&hovh=179&hovw=282&tx=146&ty=99&sig=112824408285304037198&page=1&tbnh=140&tbnw=185&start=0&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:0,i:121

Bus Image, APN Outoor. Accessed April 10 2012, Available: http://www.apnoutdoor.com.au/Interact/Gallery/

NRL Logo, Google Images. Accessed April 14 2012, Available: http://www.google.com.au/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1366&bih=622&tbm=isch&tbnid=x5ioz6EGxJsLyM:&imgrefurl=http://hotelherbert.com.au/n-r-l-footy-season-approaching-fast/&docid=qES7A-P3rmdf1M&imgurl=http://hotelherbert.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/nrl-logo72.jpg&w=400&h=400&ei=ixiaT8X4CKWImQWL0_nPDg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=112&vpy=162&dur=1104&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=130&ty=136&sig=112824408285304037198&page=1&tbnh=123&tbnw=123&start=0&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:133