Coca-Cola Misfires: A Classic Case of Do Your Home Work

Who doesn't love the NCAA and a little March Madness. So many brands see it as a way to capture a new or their supreme target audience. In this particular instance, Coca-Cola took their stunt a little too far for New Orleans. Whether it was a matter of lack of homework, or thinking they could get away with it...unfortunately it backfired and left the mega brand back pedaling. A place you don't want to be when you spend money on a campaign.

Supposed to be a Guerrilla Marketing stunt, Coca-Cola employed an ad agency to work on their campaign. The ad agency hired graffiti artists to stencil and paint red logo and taglines on sidewalks and public surfaces throughout the city of New Orleans. Little did anyone involved in the campaign know, but the graffiti violated a number of city ordinances, including the baring of posted or painted advertisements on any street, sidewalk, trees, public building etc.

City officials ordered Coca-Cola to remove the campaign with power washing by last Friday afternoon. Not only was the city upset, residents were too. A large number of residents expressed outrage at the idea that the brand defaced their city. One of the ugly parts of this story is that Coca-Cola takes no responsibility for the campaign - and blames it all on their ad agency. Saying the agency exceeded their directions.

It's sad because, you know that if the campaign had been a hit, Coca-Cola would have taken all the credit for it. Ever seen a brand side marketer let an agency take full control over a project with out approvals? No? Me neither.

My thoughts on this are simple:

1. Do your homework. Know what you can and can't do, and make sure you weigh your options. New Orleans is place still trying to rebuild itself after Katrina. Do you really want to be the brand that defaces the city?

2. Work closely with your agencies. Make sure that you work as a close team. No surprises. Your agency and in-house marketing, PR and advertising departments should be extensions of one another.

Would love to hear your thoughts.




Via: Inhabitat and V3

Favorite 4 - Authentic Facebook Timelines

Facebook rolled out the new Timeline interface, and now brands and marketers are looking into the best ways to approach the new format for their brands. I thought I would give you an outline of my favorite brand timeline integrations so far. These have incorporated the real history of their brands and created a historic story line for their brands. There are some that choose the comedic and more fictional path like Old Spice and Captain Morgan. But I really do prefer the authenticity of the older brands. If you have the history...use it!

 Coca-Cola
The Timeline starts with the company's founding paper - a Captial Stock Letter for $160,000 - from 1886. It also features a hand written testimonial about the addition of Coca-Cola in the soda fountain line from 1892, and letter form the owner of Alpha Drug Co. in 1893.

facebook.com/cocacola

The time line continues with more testimonials, a student's entry for sponsorship signage at the Amsterdam Olympics. It really shows the progression of the brand and it's history. 

Ford 

Great historical references can be found on this page. My favorite part is the photo of the first Ford vehicle ever sold in 1903. Model A, bout by a Dr. E. Pfennig of Chicago for a whopping $850. The Timeline also includes more photos of new vehicle model introductions, the first moving automotive assembly line, and a celebratory December 10, 1915 when the 1 millionth Model T was produced. 

facebook.com/ford

facebook.com/ford

Burberry

The brand has vintage photos and ads that help trace the brand's evolution as a group of explorers and adventurers to high fashion and luxury. How great is the picture of the first store to open in Basingstoke, UK in 1856.

New York Times
Love this Timeline! Not only does it provide a great story of how the newspaper developed over time, but the cover pages and articles provide an accurate timeline of history. The Timeline begins with the founding front page.

facebook.com/nytimes

“We publish today the first issue of the New-York Daily Times, and we intend to issue it every morning (Sundays excepted) for an indefinite number of years to come,” wrote The Times’s founders, Henry Jarvis Raymond, speaker of the New York State Assembly, and George Jones, an Albany banker, in the inaugural edition. It cost one cent per copy."

It even includes the front page when Lincoln was assassinated:

facebook.com/nytimes

Have any favorites? Let me know at nicolen[at]bengny[dot[com. Would love to include them in a future post!

Viral Friday!

Happy Friday! Here are some great marketing pieces I picked up this week and of course, for the top 5 viral videos of the week visit our site for our Viral Friday collection.



Durex Naked Box Design Australia
Naked Box is an online design competition where Australians compete for the opportunity fo have their art featured on a packs of Durex condoms and sold worldwide. Contestants are able to upload their designs via the Durex Facebook Page or create their designs right on the page. The designs will be featured in a gallery for people to vote on. Ultimately 6 finalists will be chosen. In the mean time Durex plans to hand out hundreds of prizes per week. Vote for your local design and send your country to the top of the list. You have until April 17th to get your design and votes in. And of course, make sure you read the design guidelines before you start. You have to keep your look world friendly :)

 Floating Graffiti

Boa Mistura, a Spanish art collective organized a community graffiti project in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The artists worked together with locals to paint inspiring words in the small winding passages of the city. When the designs are viewed at certain angle, they create the illusion of the messages floating in air. See the pics below, the positive message and the bright colors are great!

Love

Sweetness

Beauty

Papertweetos - Coca Cola Prints Tweets as Confetti

Coca Cola teamed up with Ogilvy Argentina to create a fun Social Media gone experiential campaign. As part of local football tradition, fans always trow paper with fan messages on to the pitch and around the stadium. In an attempt to boost encouragement of the Argentinean national team and engage Coca Cola fans, the company created a hashtag where fans could Tweet their messages for the team. The messages were printed out and launched into the air as the national team took to the pitch. There was a total of 2 million messages.

[PSFK, Inspiration Room]

Coca-Cola Celebrates 125 Years With a Future Room

Coca Cola recently launched a new addition to its celebratory anniversary. To mark it's 125th year the brand along with Antilop designed a 'Future Room' for the Turkish modern art museum Santralistanbul. The room is an immersive environment using a 270 degree projection system. The room takes you through different Coca Cola time periods, including the future. An aesthetically beautiful room to walk though, you become immersed in the room which mixes, art, beauty and branding.

Coca Cola - 125th Year Exhibition from Antilop on Vimeo.

[Simply Zesty]

Honesty Fans

I feel we are seeing a lot of -honesty- driven marketing campaigns at the moment. Although they are super trendy, I like them as a fun and interactive approach with target audiences. I came across this campaign this week and wanted to share it with you.

Coca Cola attached their latest campaign to football in Portugal. The company drops wallets in a Benfica (team) club store with a big match ticket conveniently sticking out visible to whomever picks it up. The idea was to make the ticket so visible that people would return the wallet, but take the ticket. And the kicker is the wallet is clearly owned by a rival team supporter! Those who returned the wallet with ticket intact would be granted their own set of tickets as a reward. Coca Cola found that 95% of the wallets with tickets were returned. A pretty great number if you ask me :) All of the good deed doers who attended the match a few weeks later were rewarded once a gain by being shown on the big screen to give them extra love for returning the wallets.

I think the campaign falls nicely in line with the feel good, warm and happy campaigns Coca Cola is used to producing. The Coca Cola happiness tour, happiness vending machines and now the honesty campaign are a great way to extend the feel of their brand.

[via Simply Zesty]