Coca

Cola on Facebook
Submitted to Prof. Naveen Amblee

By Garima Dhamija (Sec B ePGP-03-113) Coke was active in the social and interactive media space and this was headed by Michael Donnelly. They had figure that in the changing media landscape, iconic imagery and tight creative direction couldnt be sustained. Making things happen according to predetermined communication was difficult, yet responding to things after they had happened presented its own difficulties. Example in point was the famous Coke and Mentos phenomenon. This success was earlier that the take-off of social media. After 2006, social media began to evolve into media on which fans could express support for people and brands. In 2007 and then again in 2008, Mark Zuckerberg, announced Brand Pages, engagement ads etc. with the objective of demand generation ad not demand fulfillment. In 2009, the situation began to change. More companies started to get on to twitter and facebook, airlines started using social media for messaging. A case in point here was Starbucks began to experience its first ever decline in revenue in 2008, it turned to social media for help. Therough MyStarBucksIdea, twitter, Flickr and Youtube messaging,3 million likes had been gathered and Starbucks set out to become the largest brand on facebook. The content was varied form what various fans, blogs and sites were saying about them to competitions and contests to win prizes. Around this time, Dusty Sorg and Michael Jedrzejewski created a brand page of Coke on facebook, on whim, borrowing the co,s name, logo etc without permission. Within three months they had 1.2 million followers. FB noticed and called Coca Cola to check what would they like to do about it? Donnelly was concerned that a straight takeover of their page would be viewed by the fans as an invasion of the community by a domineering marketer. He and his team invited Sorg and Jedrezejewski to tour Cokes headquarters. They got along well with the team and started to find out ways to collaborate keeping in mind that it was less about the company and more about the fans. Their discussion and research also revealed that discounts and coupons cant be used to buy likes. The questions in Donnellys mind were Could a relationship between a brand and a consumer rest on promotional foundation?