Coke goes ginger for summer

Frank Chung
OCTOBER 31, 2016
News.com.au
Get it while it’s ginger.

FEEL like a ginger beer, but also kind of feel like a Coke?
You’re in luck. Coca-Cola has today launched its latest flavour, Coke Ginger, and, yes, it basically tastes like Coke mixed with ginger beer, if that’s the sort of thing you’re into.
Coke hopes the new line, a limited-edition “world first” exclusive to Australia, will put the fizz back in flagging sales. As consumers opt for drinks with less sugar and fewer calories, sales of carbonated soft drinks have not been growing as fast as those of bottled water, energy drinks, flavoured milk and iced tea.
While the company launched its stevia-sweetened Coke Life last year, Coke Ginger is the first new “flavour” in more than a decade since the launch of Vanilla Coke.
But unlike Coke Life, Coke Ginger is a temporary addition to the line-up. It’s part of Coke’s annual summer marketing campaign, which in previous years has featured personalised labels, coloured cans and heat-sensitive artwork.
Lisa Winn, marketing director at Coca-Cola South Pacific, said a “limited batch” of Coke Ginger had been made. “How quickly it comes and goes in the market will depend on how popular it is,” she said. “We anticipate it will be three or four months over summer.
“Summer is our biggest sales period. Consumers love an icy-cold Coke over summer, and something like ginger, which is quite interesting and provocative and intriguing, it brings people back to our brand.”
Ms Winn points out that Australians “have a bit of a love affair with ginger”. Sales of ginger-flavoured drinks increased by six per cent last year, and she said other markets with a taste for ginger such as China and Japan were interested in the flavour.
For the first time, Coke will also team up with messaging app Snapchat, with a Coke Ginger-themed filter to roll out soon. “This will be a really interesting and innovative summer campaign,” she said.
While she wouldn’t say how much was being spent, she said it would be in a similar vein to previous years. Coke spent around $12 million on “Colour Your Summer”, roughly the same as “Share a Coke”.
Earlier this month, Australian bottler Coca-Cola Amatil said while it did not expect to sell huge volumes, it believed many people would give it a try.
“It’s a new twist on Coke, and it’s one of a pipeline of what you’ll see,” CCA managing director Alison Watkins told investors. “It keeps adding interest to the category, and that’s what’s really important. It does taste great by the way.”
She added that a reformulated version of Coke Life, which currently accounts for one to two per cent of sales by volume under the Coke brand, would be relaunched in 2017 with fewer calories.
“Coke Life, when we introduced it last year, contains two-thirds the calories of a regular Coke. The version that we will launch next year will take it down to about 50 per cent of the calories of a regular Coke,” she said.
On plans for a low-sugar version Coke Ginger, Ms Winn said “watch this space”. “We do have lots of plans going into next year and some of those involve zero-sugar,” she said.
And could Coke Ginger become a permanent addition? “Never say never,” she said. “We’ll see how Australians embrace it over summer, but certainly we’re open to bringing things back by popular demand.”
THE NEWS.COM.AU VERDICT
• Sam Clench: This is the Ed Sheeran of Coke flavours: lame, boring and a little more ginger than I’d like.
• Wenlei Ma: I don’t mind it at all. I think it’s quite subtle. But it just makes me want a ginger beer instead.
• Liz Burke: There’s a subtle gingery scent and aftertaste, but if you’re going to do ginger, you have to commit. Coke hasn’t been bold enough with this flavour addition.
• Vanessa Brown: Every time I went to take a sip, the ginger fumes made me cough. No one has time for that.
• Gavin Fernando: My tastebuds were quivering with anticipation of that familiar sweet and fizzy flavour of Coke combined with a spicy but delectable punch of ginger. Alas, it sucked.
• Lauren McMah: This is a brilliant idea but it totally underdelivers. It smells more gingery than it tastes and there’s only a really tiny hint of ginger beer in the aftertaste. Go hard or go home, Coke!
• Debbie Schipp: Like Coke Life, Coke Ginger is a fizzer. Smells slightly different to the real thing, but tastes the same. Underwhelmed.
• Julia Corderoy: Coke is far from my soft drink of choice but I didn’t hate Coke Ginger. It tasted less chemical and was more refreshing like it wasn’t going to rot my insides as much as normal Coke.
• Matt Dunn: It is marketed as Ginger Coke, although I couldn’t even taste the difference. For me it just seems like a gimmick to get the people back on the Coke.
• Nick Whigham: It tastes like the latest attempt by Coke to stay relevant. Very much the same but with a subtle and surprisingly nice ginger aftertaste that lingers. Infinitely better than their Cherry Coke efforts, and probably even better than Vanilla Coke.