Coke lends Zero Sugar a voice in ads, TikTok filter referencing 2000s pop hit

Dive Transient:

• Coke is lending Coke Zero Sugar a voice for the primary time with a world marketing campaign leveraging synthetic intelligence (AI) expertise, per particulars shared with Advertising Dive. The trouble serves to replace Coke’s “Finest Coke Ever?” platform backing Zero Sugar.
• The delicate drink model analyzed 100,000 pictures of condensation, bubbles and airborne fizz with assistance from an object detection algorithm to develop a customized typography that enables Zero Sugar to “converse for itself,” the corporate mentioned. Customers also can create their very own tracks utilizing natural appears like a Coke can cracking open.  
• A brand new hero advert is soundtracked by a model “It’s Gonna Be Me,” the music initially carried out by NSYNC, and stars chatty bottles and cans of Coke Zero Sugar. The marketer can be deploying a world-first TikTok filter that transforms customers right into a Coke Zero Sugar bottle that may sing together with the boy band bop that harks again to the early 2000s. 

Dive Perception:

Coke is passing the mic to Zero Sugar because the low-calorie beverage continues to be a number one development driver for the delicate drink big. The tech-forward advertising and marketing play is the most recent iteration of a “Finest Coke Ever?” messaging platform launched in 2021 that places Zero Sugar extra ahead within the firm’s cola portfolio. This go-around, Coke is angling to attach with Gen Z shoppers who’ve flocked to apps like TikTok and expressed a passion for Y2K throwbacks, therefore the nod to the 2000 mega-hit “It’s Gonna Be Me.” WPP’s Open X company, led by AKQA and Ogilvy, spearheaded the marketing campaign.

“That is our most digital and social-first initiative to-date, that includes an thrilling nod to nostalgia with a marketing campaign anthem that’s already again on the lips of individuals all over the world, however leveraged in a very forward-thinking manner,” mentioned Oana Vlad, senior director of world technique for The Coca-Cola Firm, in a press assertion. 

Coke continues to experiment with functions of AI in advertising and marketing, constructing on its early bets on generative AI final 12 months. On this case, a model of AI expertise referred to as an object detection algorithm was used to intently analyze the bodily traits of Coke bottles to design a typography that might correctly embody Zero Sugar’s voice.  

That idea is made literal in a batch of recent “Style That Speaks For Itself” digital adverts that function speaking Coke Zero Sugar merchandise as they vie to get picked up at a bodega, argue throughout a dinner for 2 and attempt to maintain a streaming platform working after the viewer falls asleep on the sofa. Coke is permitting shoppers to embody Zero Sugar by way of a TikTok filter, which might be promoted with the assistance of influencer companions on the ByteDance-owned platform. 

Extra media components span experiential sampling that features a new kind of digital merchandising machine; digital show and non-traditional out-of-home adverts that showcase the typography and different sampling alternatives; and in-store promotions that purpose to cease buyers of their tracks by way of “disruptive” strategies like movement sensors and sound results.

A much bigger advertising and marketing push behind Zero Sugar provides to a gradual drip of Coke information this 12 months. Subsequent week, the model will launch the primary everlasting addition to its cola portfolio in three years, a raspberry-flavored variant referred to as Coca-Cola Spiced, which is available in zero- and full-sugar variations. The corporate’s Creations platform targeted on limited-run experimental flavors additionally stays lively, with the subsequent drop centered on a soda that intends to seize the style of tears of pleasure and in addition leans into the recognition of TikTok.  

Coke noticed web income up 7% year-over-year to $10.8 billion within the fourth quarter, per an earnings assertion launched Tuesday. Volumes slipped in North America, a vital market, however the outcomes have been buoyed by increased costs.