Two weeks ago newly appointed Cola-Cola CEO Nevill Isdell laid the blame for the company's less than stellar performance in the marketplace squarely on the shoulders of lackluster marketing. Instantly, Chuck Fruit, the new chief marketing officer for Coke scrambled the troops with a so-called "Iconographic Creative Brief" to the entire roster of company agencies around the world.
Well a bunch of Hollywood creative types took up the call to arms on the influential Hollywood-Elsewhere megasite's MadisonAveNew column to help put the sparkle back into Coke Classic. Advertising columnist and Clio Hall of Fame Creative Director, Harry Webber "just put it out there" to the thousands of movie industry influentials that frequent the site as a weekly "must read." Long considered a Tinsel Town "Buzz Machine," because of the influence of lead columnist Jeffrey Wells, the megasite brought on Webber to report on the convergence of Entertainment and Marketing into the practice of Branded Marketing.
The Madison AveNew column started covering the recent developments at Coke three weeks ago and the reader response prompted Webber to issue an unofficial "open call" to any TCCC stockholders in the Hollywood creative Community to come up with something to get his and their stock out of the doldrums. According to Webber the response was overwhelming and the ultimate strategy and campaign the ad hoc creative team (operating under the moniker "DoubleThink") was far in advance of the type of branding solution traditional agencies might devise.
They created a "Brand Character" for Coca-Cola Classic based upon the recent findings of a study conducted by the Harvard Business Review on the impact of recent political realities on the efficacy of global brands, that is absolutely breakthrough in the category, according to Webber.
The Ad Hoc Ad Campaign for Coke Classic will be unveiled in this Wednesday's (9/29/04) Madison AveNew Column at https://MadisonAveNew.com/currentmad.html . When asked if the "DoubleThink" team has plans to get the Ad Hoc Ad Campaign for Coke Classic to the powers that be in Atlanta, Harry Webber laughed and said "It's theirs for the stealing. All we wanted to do was raise the bar. And we did."
"Coca-Cola represents the entire spectrum of American Values.
It's bigger than sparkling sugar water. It has the opportunity to succeed where our government has failed.
The product as Goodwill Ambassador."
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Looks like they are heading down the right path but have yet to reach the end. There's something about these ads that remind me of another campaign (can't think of which one right now). I'd like to see the concept pushed more. They remind me of ads coming out of portfolio schools.
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PermalinkPersonally, I'm utterly underwhelmed by the Ad Hoc (or Hack) Campaign for Coke. Just take the positioning line: "Cool American." For one thing, nobody who's "cool" uses "cool" to describe themselves. (Well, I do, but I'm not cool.) And, OK, Coke may be American. But where does Pepsi come from? Albania? And how well will the American angle play overseas? In case Mr. Webber and his brain trust hadn't noticed, Americans aren't particularly popular outside our own borders these days.
Mr. Webber and his colleagues from the "Hollywood creative community" (a contradiction in terms if I ever heard one) seem to have little regard for traditional ad agencies. They may have a point: It's not like the current Coke work is anything special. But what they've created is a screenwriter's idea of an ad campaign. It's like something you'd expect to see Darren Stephens present to Larry Tate.
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PermalinkToo true Troy.
And I'm a bit confused if these ads are suppsoed to be for the international market only or for the US as well. I don't think they'd play well in the US. And they don't make me want to drink Coke. Especially with all the low-carb, no-sugar blather out there in the marketplace, I think one thing they are missing is the reason why you'd drink Coke Classic.
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PermalinkI concur.
That "cool american" is going to bomb, badly.
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