Coca-Cola Meets World Cup Challenges

Chicago — A financial supporter of the FIFA World Cup since 1976, The Coca-Cola Co. activated its sponsorship of the 2014 Brazil World Cup in 175 countries. Needless to say, “This is a really huge platform that we work on,” said Jessica Ellickson, Latin America shopper marketing director, speaking in July at the Shopper Insights in Action Conference.Ellickson said the challenges this year were streamlining the decision-making at Coca-Cola, appealing to multiple targets in many cultures, and providing an international array of top retailers with sufficient differentiation.The campaign’s core insights were that football/soccer is a game for everyone; Coca-Cola is one of the world’s most inclusive brands, and Brazil is one of the most diverse yet inclusive countries. Based on these concepts, Coca-Cola’s consumer marketing team came up with the “Together we will make this the World’s Cup” theme as the foundation for the campaign.Coca-Cola then needed to translate the theme for retail. “To make relevant connections,” Ellickson said, “we tailored our program to meet the unique needs of shoppers across occasions and channels.” Key shoppers for the campaign were moms, teens, young adults and “born sportsmen” – very active, leisure-oriented young men who would be most interested in Coca-Cola’s Powerade energy drink.In appealing to retail customers in other countries, Coca-Cola had to address the needs of the traditional trade (the small mom-and-pop stores that represent 65% of its sales in Latin America) and the modern trade (the larger retail stores such as Walmart that are more prevalent in the U.S. and European markets).For both, Coca-Cola delineated three specific in-store zones along the path to purchase: transition, destination and impulse. “By aligning the paths shoppers take in-store with zones,” Ellickson said, “we can engage shoppers in a meaningful way. The transition zone is where we create awareness and communicate with the shopper as they are transitioning into the store or into different areas of the store. The impulse zone is where we are trying to create enticement,” and the destination zone is usually the beverage aisle, especially for moms. “One of the key things there is helping her navigate the choices, making it easier to find the products.”Coca-Cola collaborated with major retailers worldwide, among them Walgreens, Kroger, Safeway and Tesco. According to Ellickson, the manufacturer had activation in 36,000 7-Eleven stores, 14,000 McDonald’s restaurants, 6,000 Walmart locations in 18 countries, and 4,000 Carrefour stores.Coca-Cola created numerous point-of-purchase and visual concepts for the retailers, along with display ideas like mini-stadiums made of product packages. There also were promotions to win tickets to the World Cup games, and a “Win a Ball, Give a Ball” promotion in which Coca-Cola would donate soccer balls to schools and charities.Among the major promotional components:A Trophy Tour in the fall of 2013. “Coke has proprietary rights to the FIFA trophy, and we take it around the world,” Ellickson said. “That is where we get engaged with heads of state, with our consumers and our shoppers, and we can connect and have events with our customers as well. It’s a really great asset for us.”A Happiness Flag was displayed on the field prior to the World Cup’s opening game. Consumers could submit photos of themselves to be incorporated into the flag. They were told they were going to be put on “the largest flag that has ever been created in the world,” said Ellickson. “We sent them an email with their picture as the opening ceremonies were going on, telling them where it would be on the flag.”With retailers demanding differentiation, Coca-Cola customized various aspects of the program for key customers. Coca-Cola partnered with Walgreens in the U.S. to promote participation via the Happiness Flag. At Walmart, the manufacturer incorporated the retailer’s colors while maintaining the program’s overall look and feel. There was also a “Fans: The Celebration” theme at Walmart, while at Carrefour it was “The Soccer Game.”“Our good customers keep demanding more and more from us,” Ellickson said. “They want differentiation – how can we drive traffic into their store vs. someone else.”To streamline the overall campaign’s development, rollout and execution, Coca-Cola smoothed out the silos between different departments, such as consumer marketing and shopper marketing, as well as in different regions, Ellickson said. More meetings and collaboration meant a stronger program. “At the end of the day, there could have been over 100 agencies across the world working with Coca-Cola on the same program,” she said. “That is super inefficient and not a productive use of our dollars.”

Coca-Cola Meets World Cup Challenges

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