“Coke come alive” – The campaign that takes innovation to a new level

Imagine having a drink that’s packaging changes with the temperature as you drink it. Pretty cool right. Well, we all know Coca-Cola is infamous for their innovative marketing campaigns, and with their newest “Coke come alive” campaign said to launch this summer, you will most certainly NOT be disappointed!

At the beginning of this month, Coca-Cola South Pacific announced the launch of a new summer campaign featuring packaging which will change colour based on the drink’s temperature. This design, based on temperature control, is a first for Coke and will further feature on most of their packaging sizes including the 250ml cans and the 390ml, 600ml, 1L, and 1.25L bottles and frozen cups. The image recognition technology that will be used will also be able to recognise ‘Come Alive’ colour packs across other Coke products: Diet Coke, Coke Zero and Coke Life.

Some might be thinking how does it work? The “Coke come alive” campaign will see the drink packaging change colour when the drink reaches “optimal temperature for enjoyment”. This new marketing ploy will hopefully aim at introducing new consumers to the drink with particular focus of the younger market and also aim at engaging existing consumers who are loyal to the Coke brand.

In the process of providing cross-channel content to its consumers via social media, Coke has brought in help from teenage celebrities and key-teen influences in attracting a younger demographic.

“Coke come alive” will be part of a multi-million dollar integrated campaign that will push and evolve the "Color your summer" campaign. It will include image recognition technology where consumers are able to take an image of their drinks when it changes colors to win unique experiences, content and event access.

As we know, a successful campaign must continually innovate and integrate a range of mediums to ensure it effectively gets its brand message out to its consumers. To further drive its summer campaign, Coke will strategically implement outdoor advertising in locations deemed as “youth hot spots”, as well as point-of-sale merchandising in stores nation wide.

Group marketing manager, Dianne Everett says, “We are thrilled to launch the next exciting phase of the Coke Come Alive campaign. We believe it will provide a platform which will excite people about this iconic brand over summer”. I personally cannot wait to go out and buy one of these super cool coke bottles during summer.

Lauren Musat
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School