Dive Brief:
- As of May 1 and lasting through the summer, Coca-Cola Co. is bringing back its Share a Coke promotion, wherein 1,000 of the most common first names will appear on hundreds of millions of Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, and Coke Zero 20-ounce bottles — quadruple the number of names used in 2014.
- During last year's Share a Coke promotion, Coca-Cola saw more than 19% growth for sales of its 20-ounce bottles — the largest growth year over year that the company has seen for that size packaging.
- The best-selling bottle name for the 2014 promotion was Chris, and this year, Coca-Cola expects the bestsellers to be Michael and Jessica.
Dive Insight:
The move appears to at least in part be driven by Coca-Cola's aspirations to encourage social media engagement. The company believes that some consumers, particularly their targeted younger audience, will want to share photos of themselves drinking the Coca-Cola products with their first names on them. This hope has merit. The last time Coca-Cola introduced this advertising stunt, word of mouth promotion had Share a Coke as the No. 1 global trending topic last July 29.
Jennifer Healan, Coca-Cola's group director of integrated marketing content, said, "Teens love to be famous. To teens, it's all about me, me, me. Think of all the selfies. Now, you can take a selfie with your name on a Coke bottle," USA TODAY reported.