Dive Brief:
- Coca-Cola Co. has named Marcos de Quinto, a Coke executive in Madrid, as the next chief marketing officer for the world's largest soft drink company.
- De Quinto, with three decades of experience at Coke, will replace Joe Tripodi, who will retire at the end of February.
- The announcement comes just days after Coke reported poor earnings and announced an acceleration of a global cost-cutting initiative.
Dive Insight:
De Quinto is a bit of an unknown in the marketing world. It will be interesting to see what innovations he might bring to the storied, but sagging, Coke brand.
As for Tripodi, it must be noted that he served as marketing boss during a difficult time for the company. But if there was an area where Coke continued to do well in recent years, it was in the creativity of its marketing. For that, Tripodi must be commended.
One interesting note about Tripodi's career is that the theme of Coke's marketing in recent years seemed to revolve around making connections. It was an unusual approach, but one based in the iconic buy-the-world-a-Coke song on the hilltop.
Tripodi may wind up being best remembered for the "Share a Coke" campaign of the past year, which featured personalized bottles, and reminded us somehow of that hilltop ad from 1971. But Food Dive's favorite campaign from the Tripodi years was the "it takes two" stunt where college kids needed to find a partner to open a Coke bottle.