Morgan Palmer
Prof. Goodwin
MC 3031
31 March 2019
Coke launched its “Share a Coke campaign during the summer of 2014. The campaign sparked such a great reaction from people across the world, leading Coke to make the campaign an annual thing, while also making it bigger and better than the year before. In my opinion, they really hit the mark with their 2018 “Share a Coke.”
One of the main differences between this version of “Share a Coke” and any other version is that it was created based off of the reactions from consumers the summer before. With the 2017 release of the campaign, the use of a new hashtag, #shareacoke, lead to the company realizing that people did not just care about being able to find their names on the bottle of a coke label, but also loved sharing the memories it brought them. Seeing this reaction, Coke decided to make the names on their plastic bottles removable stickers so that people could bring their name with them wherever they went. What made the campaign even more unique from the previous summers was an added contest. Once a consumer removed their sticker from their bottle, they could scan or input a code into the Share a Coke website for a chance to win a prize. Prizes ranged from receiving a free coke to winning tickets to an amusement park or even baseball games.
Another new feature Coke released on the Share a Coke website was the ability to order personalized bottles and social postcards that could be shared with family and friends. The personalized bottles allowed for up to two lines of personalized text. This new feature could be used to personalize things for weddings, birthday presents, Christmas presents, or just the occasional, “I’m thinking about you,” present. Speaking from personal experience, I find this feature to be very successful as my uncle, who lives on the other side of the country, has been able to share Coke bottles personalized with the LSU Tiger logo, making a great impact in my day.
One of the more unique ways Coke tied into the idea of memories being just as important as the drink was the use of the Coke chair, which was released in Los Angeles and in the Coke Factory Headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. This chair also served as a functional vending machine that only dispensed drinks when two people sat on the chair at the same time. The drinks that were dispended were personalized and once the participants received their drinks, their pictures would be taken so they could remember the moment forever.
Finally, Coke also released their television ads which focused on teens and young adults, their target audience, making bonds through sharing a Coke. Their videos mostly featured people at parties, creating memories by sharing a coke. One video in particular showed a man and presumably his son on a train, sitting in silence. When the son reaches for the coke, the father takes the coke away from him and shows him a label that reads, “friends.” The son does something on his phone, and a message pops up on the father’s phone that reads, “friend request accepted.” Then the son enjoys the drink. This video portrays a very cute and memorable moment between father and son.
I find that this ad campaign is a very successful one. Not only is it one of the most talked about and anticipated campaigns, it also does what it sets out to do. Personally, I have many memories of my mom, brother, and sister constantly sticking the removable stickers wherever they could the entire summer of 2018. I find that this campaign doesn’t have a shelf life since everyone loves to make memories, and many people do make memories with the shareable cokes.
Examples from the campaign:
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