Coke Zero: Launching Bloke Coke
Brief
Gain widespread coverage for the UK launch of Coke Zero particularly among its target of young men. This was the biggest launch of its kind in 22 years for The Coca Cola Company.
SolutionLexis came up with the theme of 'Bloke Coke'. We ran a photoshoot with Cheryl Tweedy pictured drinking 'Bloke Coke' in male scenarios such as inside a gentleman's club and distributed the images to the media alongside interview content during launch week. To add weight to the shots, we surveyed the nation to find out what women would do if they could be a man for the day and vice versa. The story was used by PA Newswire and IRN resulting in mass pick up from print and broadcast media and was further exploited by two comedians we hired to discuss the survey results as part of a national radio tour.
To support the ATL theme of life with zero downsides, we ran a two-week radio promotion with Xfm, as well as organising mass sampling among key media and competitions in target male titles. The prizes, such as stag dos without the wedding, all related back to the advertising metaphors.
ResultsEarly distribution success resulted in the PR campaign being brought forward by 10 days to ensure the most timely communication with consumers.
We achieved well over 24 million OTS in print coverage alone , including 20 national hits, 6 consumer titles and 32 trade pieces. Cheryl Tweedy's images made it into The Mirror, Daily Star, Independent on Sunday, New, Zoo and Grazia among others. Guaranteed activity supporting the 'Zero Downside' theme produced highly targeted coverage in Nuts, NME, Sun Online and Daily Star. Our 'Bloke Coke' catchphrase really captured the media's imagination and was adopted by the majority of titles. In total we generated 145 pieces of coverage with a total circulation of over 90 million.