Coke & Meal

In a cluttered media landscape, Coca Cola wanted to break through and create a strong association with mealtimes. Research showed the positive relationships within a family are critical to its happiness and that meal times were the times during the day to nurture positive connections between family members. Coke therefore needed to convey that its bubbly refreshing brand personality could enhance the mood of the meal table and bring the family together. The key barrier to success was the fact that the family meal often had negative connotations for teens – it tended to be the time when they would receive parental lectures.

Coke needed to target mums and convince them that bringing Coke to the table would improve the family meal experience. Coke decided to use recipe based shows as our lead channel to establish Coke as the ‘natural fit with food’. Firstly it acquired two existing shows that were popular with mums, building Coke into the format to convey Coke’s brand values of togetherness, family bonding and joy. Coke modified the overall concept for the show, jointly developing scripts. During programming pinnacle Ramadan, Coke leveraged influence on other broadcasters to create two new Coke shows. One of the shows saw viewers become part of the show and another saw celebrities cook and enjoy the Iftaar (the meal that breaks the fast) to attract a younger audience.

As a result there was a 36% sales growth of the 1.5 litre bottle (home consumption pack) in 2008. The brand image indicator of “Coke Goes Well Food” increased by 20% in 2008, while “Is a brand that makes family times better” went up by 18%.