'Share a Coke' analysis.

This is the recent 'Share a Coke' advert, launching Coca Cola's new marketing campaign of putting names on Coke bottles. It's an original idea that can potentially generate a lot of revenue. The advert itself is quite basic, with a handful of people talking about who they would share a Coke with. This particular advert, unlike Hilltop, portrays the people as real people, not just singing robots holding a coke. These are real people with personalities and accents and reliability. Most of us can relate to having an annoying sibling, but you still love them. We can relate to having a really good friend that we would like to 'Share a Coke' with.

Instead of these people giving scripted, by-the-book, robotic responses, they seem like real people you would normally see on the street or in school. They have imperfections and character traits and all the squishy stuff that makes a human, well, human. Instead of this being in the form of text, like a 'This person feels strongly about this person' type deal, they're actual people expressing their opinions in a manner they would ordinarily use to speak to their friends or peers. This is in effort to make Coca Cola seem like a more relatable, approachable and friendly corporation, and not the massive, conglomerate, globalized corporation it actually is.

The aesthetic of the advert is youthful, as if Coca Cola are part of the young age fueled by hashtags and selfies. Sure, it keeps the old colour scheme of Coca Cola (see the red and white background), but the people are young, they talk like young people the song ('Tongue Tied' by Grouplove) is a relatively new song, the fashion is recent, hell, almost everything about the advert is youthful, and it all serves one purpose: to make Coca Cola seem more in touch with the young audience. I mostly see teenagers or generally younger people drinking Coke, and if the company was out of touch with that audience, then surely that audience wouldn't drink Coke anymore. Whereas other companies and corporations aren't in tune with what the younger generation (I'm looking at you, Newspaper industry), Coca Cola is thriving off of this generation because of this advert and their entire marketing technique. They incorporate modern art styles and more efficient, less-expensive ways of reaching a large audience, either through hashtags or YouTube.

The idea of putting a name on a Coke bottle looks promising. I often see people fishing through Coke stands, trying to find their name or their friends name, attracting a larger audience of people who enjoy the novelty of having their own name on a Coke. Coca Cola is a huge company, too huge, incredibly huge, and to have your name on a bottle containing the most consumed soft drinks in the world, gives you a feeling that you are special and are noticed by this Multi-national corporation. People fish through many a Coke bottle to find their name, and post a picture of their personalized bottle on Facebook or Instagram or social network of choice.

The best part about this campaign is how simple it is. A name is simple. We can all remember the names of our friends. How much does a Coke label cost to make anyway? Maybe a little more that your standard Coke label, but compare that to the amount of revenue Coca Cola have made through this marketing campaign, and the cost of an individual label is insignificant. With this marketing campaign, Coca Cola feel less like a huge, conglomerate corporation, and they feel more personal.

Coke is a really clever company, and so far they're doing really well with this campaign. A few bad press incidents or a PR nightmare won't be enough to destroy Coca Cola at this point. They're too successful and too clever to lose any kind of popularity at this point. Incidentally, I want a coke now.