Trink ne Coke mit (Share a Coke)
Why Coca-Cola was suddenly called Steffi
Take the logo off the product? No brand could afford to do that in 2013 - Nobody except Coca-Cola that is. Coke catapulted itself into the hearts of the consumers with this move and the campaign’s success proved to be an all time high.
Nowadays, the sight of first names and greetings on chocolate bars, chocolate spread or soft cheese is nothing new. But in the summer of 2013 Coca-Cola, for the first time in its company history and in the whole of German brand history, took off the well-known lettering on the bottles and cans and replaced it with the 150 most popular teenager names in Germany. Suddenly, supermarket shelves were turned upside-down in the search for a particular name.
“They are turning the whole shop upside down.”
Branch manager of a Berlin supermarket
Even those with more unusual names didn’t have to go without their personalised bottle of Coke On the campaign website, every visitor could write their own name on the bottle and order it for €1.99 for home delivery with just a few clicks. The sales system that had been specially created was really tested during the first few days as huge numbers of the personalised Cokes were ordered – for the buyers personally, but also as gifts, as something personalised to take to parties, or to put in the office fridge so it could not be mistaken for anyone else’s.
The individual URLs on the cans fuelled the campaign hashtag #MeineCoke (My Coke) and spread the idea digitally. The cans were especially prominent on social media with 59,000 postings by consumers and 12 million views. The accompanying activities also took the internet by storm, such as the real-time rendering of videos that could be personalised. On the campaign website, teens could take part in the video “Dancing bottles” – and star in a video themselves with their name and the names of three of their friends on the bottles.
“We have learnt a lot, especially about connecting digital and classical marketing. We shall be doing this again in future campaigns“
Michael Willeke, Director Integrated Marketing Communications bei Coca-Cola
During a campaign period of 4 months, the website got 4.2 million visits and 200 million personalised bottles were sold. Due to these very convincing figures, the campaign received an Effie gold award. It’s no wonder that with figures like that there are plenty of copycats in the chocolate spread and soft cheese industries. But Steffi was first!
