
Coca-cola nails social media by releasing personalized bottles - dirtyaura
http://owened.co.nz/cocacola-gets-social-media
======
DrStalker
In Australia they did this a year ago - predictably using common names with a
scattering of rare names. Then they did "relationship" ones - sister, boss,
mother, etc.

At one stage I saw a coke event of some sort in a mall that looked like you
could line up and get a bottle custom printed with any name on it.

It was definitely successful increasing the amount of people talking about
coke, even if only to lament that they'd never be able to find their name.

~~~
wisty
Also, Will Anderson (from Gruen Planet) found you couldn't order ones labeled
"Pepsi" or "Urine", but you could order one for "Dia" and another for "Betes".

~~~
sjwright
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb_I95JkFLc>

------
biot
Jones Soda has been doing this since the late 90s:

[http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=200...](http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20000529&slug=4023748)

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jones_Soda#myJones>

~~~
s_henry_paulson
To be fair, this is completely different.

------
the_bear
It wouldn't surprise me if this benefits Coke by making consumers more
interested, but hurts Coke by pissing off store owners. Most stores that sell
soda are set up for the consumer to take the soda from the front of a long
row, and then the row slides up in the display. I'd guess that some customers
would create a mess trying to find their name and not bother to clean it up
(if they can - many soda refrigerators can only be easily loaded from the
back).

If my speculation is true, that probably gives store owners an incentive to
de-emphasize the placement of the Coke so that random browsers will be less
likely to create a huge mess. Obviously store owners have to sell Coca-Cola
because some customers are specifically looking for it, but they don't have to
give it prime real estate.

~~~
Kerrick
Or, it may give store owners an incentive to give Coke more shelf space, so
consumers can see more names at once.

~~~
delinka
"... _give_ Coke more shelf space..." (emphasis mine)

Not to be pedantic, but most of my local stores (Big Box and one-off
convenience stores) charge for shelf and floor space. Basically, charging rent
for the location soft drinks are offered. If Coke wants more room, Coke has to
negotiate for more room.

As for me, if I'm buying Coke at a convenience store for a drink on the road,
I only care that the bottle says "Coca Cola" and I'm taking the coldest or
frontmost bottle.

~~~
r00fus
Exactly, stores in meatspace don't care too much about eyeballs (unless
they're prominently placed ones - which double as billboards).

They care about $sales/sqft because they have to pay the rent and the stuff
that pays better will get more shelf space. I'm doubtful, but it's possible
that personalized coke bottles could end up selling other stuff too, but it
better be like crack or it's not gonna get more shelf space.

------
jdn1000
How easily we are amused. How quickly we classify things as genius.

~~~
sp332
It was called "genius" because it turned an impersonal object into its
opposite (a personalized object) and did it really, really successfully.

------
cstrat
Yeah I thought it was a brilliant success in Australia. Like the author of the
article states - you wouldnt go a day without seeing a bottle in your feed. It
was pretty active for at least 6 months before it died down.

I dont drink coke, but I did enjoy the fad.

------
pan69
Was already done about a year ago here in Australia:

[http://mumbrella.com.au/coca-cola-puts-peoples-names-on-
bott...](http://mumbrella.com.au/coca-cola-puts-peoples-names-on-bottles-in-
share-a-coke-campaign-59657)

Not sure about the rest of the world.

------
tzm
Coca-Cola is experimenting with a "smart" soda machine (dubbed "Freestyle")
that lets you share personalized mix/match flavors with your friends. It comes
loaded with over 100 brands.

They also had a mobile app to send a Coke to a stranger, which was part of an
advertising campaign.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45Z-GevoYB8>

~~~
joezydeco
The Freestyle is already deployed. Five Guys is installing them in as many
stores as they can, and I recently went through a Wendy's drive-thru that had
one, although I'm not sure how one uses it that way.

~~~
tzm
Yep, they are deploying nationwide. The one I saw recently was a prototype
that had wifi and social integration, etc.

------
lmferreira
They're doing the same here in Brazil:
[http://translate.google.com/translate?twu=1?sl=auto&tl=e...](http://translate.google.com/translate?twu=1?sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A//www.meioemensagem.com.br/home/comunicacao/noticias/2012/07/31/Coca-
Zero-imprime-nomes-em-embalagens.html)

------
veb
I'm in New Zealand myself, and I really hate this. I drink Coke as a guilty
pleasure, but when they bought this in I got really turned off.

I'm not going to drink Coke that's for "Callum", "Katherine" or <random name
that's not mine nor my wifes>.

Major turn off. I would really like to see if this promotion actually _works_.

~~~
batiudrami
I can't imagine allowing something like this to bother me - it's just a name
on a disposable bottle. Are you sure you're not railing against it because you
don't like seeing the marketing being so successful on social networks?

~~~
veb
... how is it being successful on social networks anyway? I haven't seen
_anything_ about this on Facebook.

It just feels like the bottle belongs to someone else. I'm allowed to feel
weird, if I want.

~~~
batiudrami
I don't know if it's successful in NZ or not, but when it ran in Australia a
year or so back you barely went a day without someone posting a picture of
them with their name on the bottle.

------
treelovinhippie
What I want to see (and somewhat of a prediction) is for CocaCola to have a
campaign where users connect with Facebook, CocaCola collects all of their
information - for good purposes of course ;) ...and then print personalized
labels with the user's actual Facebook profile pic. They'd know the user's
location, so they'd just need to workout how to distribute those bottles to
local distributors.

If people are stupid enough to search for a common name on a coke bottle, then
they'll go apeshit searching their local retailers for their actual Facebook
picture (and those of their friends).

Coke should give me a royalty for this :)

~~~
weego
They would probably get sued for misrepresentation (aligning someones image
with a brand is not a right unless you sign waivers, which granted some people
would do). Names are generic hence you can get away with it.

Also it would feel more lik missing persons on milk cartons than social
brilliance.

Edit: Wait, should I be hearing a whoosh sound about now?

~~~
treelovinhippie
All you do is include the waiver and terms when they connect on Facebook. I'm
not saying print random user profile pics. They'd have to connect first.

------
mcpie
Vedett, a Belgian beer brewery, has been doing something similar / doing it
better. It prints user-uploaded pictures on all their bottles. It's pretty
cool and has made the beer quite popular among the 'creative avant-garde' (or
whatever we call 'em these days):

<http://www.vedett.be/>

------
shannon_b
I work in retail, and the amount of times I'd see customers moving coke
bottles all over the shelf just so they could find particular names, it was
just astounding. Infuriating, but somewhat clever marketing.

------
squid_ca
I thought social media was something to do with connecting users on the web,
not printing statistically relevant names on products.

~~~
jmduke
Jim wants a Coke.

Jim finds a Coke with his name on it!

Jim says, "Hey, that's pretty neat."

Jim posts an Instagram of him next to his personal Coke.

Jenny sees Jim's post and comments -- "Hey, that's pretty neat. Where can I
get one with Jenny on it?"

~~~
squid_ca
That's not "nailing" social media. That's creating a clever marketing trick
and then being happy that people shared it on social media. Did PSY "nail"
social media because people "Liked" his video? Did <insert group name here>
"nail" social media because your aunt forwarded their spam to you? Did some
band "not nail" social media because their video didn't go viral?

Coke advertised their product. Some people got excited, and told their friends
on social media. Just like other things. Coke didn't do anything special with
social media, they just counted on people using it. Big deal.

------
draftable
Typical Kiwis. Years behind the Aussies.

~~~
capex
And Aussies years behind xx. No point saying that 'mate'.

------
compsciphd
this reminds me of the keychains I used to see at highway rest stops that had
all sorts of people's names on them. Always wondered who bought them
(especially as no one in my family has a "popular" name).

~~~
sjm
When they did this in Australia, they had quite a lot of foreign and otherwise
less-common names included. There was also things like "Share a coke with your
Mate", "Share a coke with your Bro", "Share a coke with your Boss", etc.

------
89a
christ people are fucking stupid if simply seeing their name written somewhere
pleases them that much

~~~
peterwwillis
..... Welcome to humanity. Would you like a Coke?

