Coca-Cola's new campaign unites all brands

Coca-Cola Company has rolled out its first global tagline -- Taste the Feeling -- across all Coke brands in a multimillion dollar campaign that combines both emotional and functional marketing strategies.

To highlight the global flavour of the new 'one brand' campaign, the company's Chief Marketing Officer Marcos de Quinto unveiled the effort in Hong Kong for Asia and the Pacific yesterday. The campaign was first launched in Paris on January 19.

“Through the strategy, we will move away from multiple brand campaigns, to one single iconic brand campaign that celebrates both the product and the brand,” he said.

The creative campaign is anchored in the fundamentals of the Coca-Cola brand -- the Spencerian script, the red disc and the distinctive contour glass bottle, but with a modern take, featuring real moments in consumers' lives with the product at the centre of attention.

The branding on every Coca‑Cola product will be in the same style, with different colours to distinguish each variant.

The new move came as the company that boasts more than 500 sparkling and still brands ratcheted up its marketing spend for lower and no-sugar colas.

The Atlanta-based company is working to counter the currency headwinds and declining consumption of soda by trimming $3 billion in annual expenses and ploughing some of the savings back into increased marketing and developing new products. Led by Coca-Cola, the company's portfolio features $20 billion brands, making it the largest beverage company in the world. The company is also weathering the storm by selling smaller containers of its beverages and revamping its bottling system to improve profitability.

Coca-Cola and its peers have faced declining soda sales in recent years in developed markets, hurt by concerns about sugar and artificial sweeteners. For growth, the company is looking beyond its traditional beverages into ready-to-drink coffees and juices and juice drinks.

“We are reinforcing that Coca-Cola is for everybody,” de Quinto said. “Coca-Cola is one brand with different variants, all of which share the same values and visual iconography.”

 An international network of agencies has developed the 'Taste the Feeling' work. Four agencies -- Mercado-McCann, Santo, Sra Rushmore and Ogilvy & Mather -- produced an initial round of 10 television commercials, digital, print, out-of-home and shopper materials.

The campaign kicks off with the lead commercial, 'Anthem', which presents a series of moments linked by a Coke, such as ice-skating with friends, a first date, a first kiss and a first love.

The campaign -- which will roll out around the world at different times throughout 2016 -- celebrates the experience of drinking an ice-cold Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola takes centre stage in every piece of what Rodolfo Echeverria, the company's vice president of global creative, connections and digital, calls “emotional product communication.”

“The universal moments and storytelling depicted in the campaign were created to resonate with our consumers globally,” said Echeverria.

The 'Break Up' TV commercial, for instance, follows the journey of a young couple who romance each other, experience a break-up and ultimately reconcile, with Coca-Cola playing an intimate role at each stage of their relationship.

The same images and television ads in Japan will also be seen in Italy, Mexico and the rest of the world.

'Brotherly Love', another TV ad, captures the unique relationship between brothers, a universal story of love and conflict. Ultimately, the younger brother finds himself without his Coca-Cola. The elder brother comes to his rescue and they enjoy a special moment together.

Music plays a key role in the company's new communications. A song produced by Swedish artist and producer Avicii and featuring soulful singer Conrad Sewell serves as the campaign anthem.

'Taste the Feeling' is anchored in compelling visual storytelling through more than 100 images shot by noted fashion photographers Guy Aroch and Nacho Ricci.

 Coca-Cola is central to each moment; without it, there is no story. Images are cropped in a way that closes in on the Coca-Cola bottle, while still telling a personal story. The photography features human moments that blur the boundaries between who people are and what they love to do.