ADOTAS — Coca-Cola has broadened its marketing strategy to appeal to the teen demographic, last week unveiling “The AHH Effect,” a new campaign that is the brand’s first digital-only campaign in the company’s history, along with men’s fashion line. The content will be modeled from a mobile-first perspective in an attempt to appeal to modern teens’ notably short attention spans and proclivity towards mini-games, funny videos and multimedia content.
Coca-Cola’s global marketing campaign incorporates 61 URLs across with web, peppered with bite-sized content around the theme of “The AHH Effect,” a new positioning for the brand. The campaign uses the URL ahh.com along with ahhh.com, ahhhh.com and so on with each succeeding “H” in the URL ushering in a new experience. The URLs get longer and longer throughout the campaign. So far, there are 17 “experiences” available.
In the coming weeks, Coke will utilize paid and owned media via Facebook and Twitter to encourage teens to create their own software-based experiences for the brand. Out of the submissions, 25 will be selected to be included in “The AHH Effect” run.
“Digital, social and mobile are re-writing the rules of marketing. We can no longer have one-way brand to fan communications – instead the brand must facilitate true fan experiences to drive engagement,” said Pio Schunker, senior vice president of integrated marketing communications, Coca-Cola North America Group. “This campaign is the next step in our evolution of Coca-Cola’s marketing innovation. The notion erupted in 2012 when the iconic Coke Polar Bears watched the Big Game with millions of fans from their arctic living room, then millions more logged on to help ‘Gamify’ the Big Game with the Showgirls, Badlanders and Cowboys earlier this year. Now, we hope the AHH Effect will reach a new generation of Coca-Cola fans using the right content in just the right digital context.”
This move towards an exclusively digital campaign is a step in the right direction according to Quebec-based company Acquisio, that provides digital marketers with a performance media platform that enables them to optimize the results of their search, social, mobile, and display marketing.
“You know digital marketing has come of age when you see large brands such as GM and Coke invest in significant campaigns that will be only digital,” said Marc Poirier (pictured), co-founder and EVP of business development at Acquisio. “Beyond digital, mobile-only efforts by brands are also very likely to increase over the next few months, as time spent on mobile continues to skyrocket.”
Poirier said the forward-thinking approach by Coke is in response to the fact that teens are not spending time reading print or watching television with the same frequency as before.
As part of Coke’s AHH campaign, the world famous beverage company is also releasing its fall/winter 2013 clothing line, with some pieces actually looking pretty fresh and current. The collection focuses on a combination of street wear aesthetic with an artistic edge and is surprisingly fashion-forward, considering the company makes sodas. Doubtful if the models themselves imbibe the sugary concoction since their physiques don’t appear to show it.
