Jennifer Aaker: Case Study: Coca-Cola's Global Campaign

Transcript

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Summary

This video discusses a case study of Coca-Cola's viral marketing campaign targeted at teenagers. Coca-Cola divided the world into seven teams and gave each team $50,000 to create an authentic and organic viral campaign. While most teams failed, one team succeeded with the Coke Happiness Machine video, which generated two million views on YouTube in two weeks. The key factors that contributed to its success were the use of emotional contagion, storytelling, unexpectedness, and enabling action.

Questions & Answers

Q: What was Coca-Cola's goal with their viral marketing campaign?

Coca-Cola's goal was to connect with teenagers globally using digital media.

Q: How did Coca-Cola approach their viral campaign differently from other companies?

Instead of allocating a large marketing budget to their marketing team, Coca-Cola divided the world into seven teams and gave them $50,000 each to create an authentic and organic viral campaign.

Q: How many teams out of the seven succeeded in their viral campaigns?

Only one team, the team behind the Coke Happiness Machine video, succeeded in creating a viral campaign.

Q: What was unique about the Coke Happiness Machine video?

The Coke Happiness Machine video was hidden in college campuses during finals time when people were feeling down and depressed. It captured authentic reactions through hidden cameras.

Q: How did Coca-Cola achieve two million views on YouTube in two weeks?

The viral success of the Coke Happiness Machine video was driven by organic search and a single tweet encouraging people to share the video.

Q: What was the global reach of the Coke Happiness Machine video?

Fifty percent of the viewers were from outside the U.S., and 70% of the blogs discussing the video were in languages other than English.

Q: What was the overall sentiment of the blog posts about the Coke Happiness Machine video?

Ninety-five percent of the blog posts were positive comments, which is highly unusual and shows the effectiveness of the campaign.

Q: Did the Coke Happiness Machine video impact consumer choice and preference?

There is evidence suggesting that the video influenced some individuals to consider switching from Pepsi to Coca-Cola.

Q: How did Coca-Cola create an emotional connection with viewers through the video?

Coca-Cola selected only footage that captured personal smiles and shared emotions, creating an emotional contagion that resonated with viewers.

Q: Did Coca-Cola focus on enabling action in their viral campaign?

While the viral campaign successfully grabbed attention and told a compelling story, it didn't focus as much on enabling action. However, this has led to subsequent campaigns around "Open Coke" or "Open Happiness" to encourage customer engagement.

Takeaways

The success of Coca-Cola's viral campaign demonstrates the power of authenticity, unexpectedness, storytelling, and emotional contagion in creating viral content. By dividing the budget among multiple teams and allowing for experimentation, Coca-Cola was able to identify the most successful approach. However, it's important for future campaigns to also focus on enabling action to further engage the audience.