In the case of each of the eight fantasy-themed flavors Coca-Cola Creations dropped around the globe—including Starlight, Zero Sugar Byte, Marshmello’s Limited Edition, Dreamworld, Soul Blast, Move and Ultimate—customers had no idea what they tasted like. As it turned out, that was a big part of the appeal for younger fans.
“We were very happy to see from the first one, which was Starlight, that interaction of people guessing about what was in it made the platform even more engaging,” said Selman Careaga, president of global Coca-Cola. “We felt that it was the right time, we felt that it was the right way of connecting with Gen Z, and we’re very happy with the results.”
According to Careaga, 65% of those who engaged with Coca-Cola Creations promotions, partners and products hadn’t dealt with Coca-Cola as a brand before. Among those newcomers, 80% came away feeling that Coca-Cola was an innovative brand, creating a multidimensional blueprint for future campaigns and providing the company a template for “bottling culture.”
“We’re getting used to working much faster and taking some bolder risks, which is a really exciting cultural evolution for us,” said Oana Vlad, senior director of Coca-Cola global brand and global lead for Coca-Cola Creations and Coca-Cola Zero. “The muscle that we’re building through co-creation and collaboration we can apply in other places.”
The brand experience
Coca-Cola is diving into those risks from a solid foundation. The company uses either Coca-Cola or Zero Sugar as the base for each of its Creations formulas and lets fans speculate on social media about what they’ve added to the mix afterward.
Then, as much as it builds flavor around that base, it also creates an experience around each offering. Careaga noted that Coca-Cola looks at two key pillars when selecting its partners: They have to represent the values of the brand (“they’re authentic, they’re uplifting, and they’re genuine”) and, they have to be relevant in culture.
When Coca-Cola finds someone who meets that criteria, like Ambush founder and designer Yoon Ahn, it gets a bit more comfortable leaving the brand open to artistic interpretation.
