Coke the musical ready for canning

Simon Canning
September 17, 2012
The Australian

COCA-COLA is to become a music platform when it launches its biggest summer promotion, linking with the streaming service Spotify to offer drinkers access to 50 hits from each of the past 75 years.

One year after launching its personalised cans — an Australian campaign replicated around the world — the drinks giant will rebrand its cans as individual years from 1938, with Universal music providing hit songs from each year.

Coca-Cola South Pacific marketing director Lucie Austin said there was an enormous challenge trying to top the success of the Share a Coke campaign last summer. “It was incredibly personal, it created connections, which is what Coke is known for, and it let people have a bit of fun with the brand as well,” Ms Austin said.

“Coke’s history has always had a strong link to music and we thought music choices are an incredibly personal thing. Also, people connect over music, people share it, they talk about it.”

As part of the launch, Coke has extended a global relationship with Spotify, a streaming music service new to Australia that is expected to see elements of the campaign extend well beyond Coke’s peak summer sales period.

As well as offering access to songs from 75 years, people will be able to nominate their favourite songs from Spotify’s 16-million strong library.

Coke will then curate the lists that will be available to Spotify subscribers as ready-made playlists. The company expects to create playlists for road trips, weddings, beach days and barbecues.

Coke has also expanded the program from last year to encompass both Diet Coke and Coke Zero, along with classic Coke, a move that has forced the company to create more than 1500 different artworks for packaging and promotion.

Consumers will be able to launch the Share a Coke app through their phones using a QR code reader. The app will then launch the playlist from the year branded on the bottle.

The broader Spotify service will be available only through computers using a URL.

Ms Austin said consumers were expected to seek out cans that represented significant years in their lives.

The campaign will work on three levels, with consumers selecting their favourite years off the shelves, sharing songs through the app on Facebook and other social media with friends and creating playlists.

“We are not telling people what to listen to, we are saying you have music you have loved in the past, you connected with people over that music. We want you to connect again,” she said.

While cans branded with years from 1938 to 2012 are already entering the market, Coke will officially kick off the campaign on the NRL and AFL grand final weekend.

TV commercials will anchor the promotion, with radio and digital media playing a key role.

The brand will also sponsor The X Factor on the Seven Network as well as integration on music channels such as V, MOTIF and Max.

Buses will promote the Share a Coke and a song campaign.