Coca-Cola’s New Marketing Strategy – Taste The Feeling

The “Open Happiness” slogan gets replaced by “Taste The Feeling” as Coke launches the biggest campaign in over a decade.

Debuted in 2009, Coca-Cola’s lofty slogan “Open Happiness” was over-used to cover all of its ideals-based campaigns from anti-bullying to supporting exploited migrants in Dubai.

However, it was becoming all too preachy. With the entrance of new global CMO, Marcos de Quito, the new slogan is less of a lesson to learn and more about instilling in the minds of the drinkers simple pleasures of life, such as the taste of a chilled Coke on a warm summer day.

The new campaign billed “Taste the Feeling” pushes the product center-stage in an attempt to win back some of the drinkers in the struggling soda category. Coke also announced that all brands (Coca-Cola, Diet Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero, and Coca-Cola Life) under the Coca-Cola company umbrella will be united under the same creative campaign, in a huge shift of strategy.

Announced today in Paris by Coca-Cola executives, the campaign ads have rolled out across more than 200 countries world-wide.

The campaign kicks off with the lead commercial, “Anthem,” which presents a series of moments linked by a Coca-Cola, such as ice-skating with friends, a first date, a first kiss and a first love.

In the interview, Mr. de Quinto spoke passionately about taking Coke in a new, more humble direction. Ads will use the kind of compelling storytelling long-associated with Coke. But they will depict everyday moments, like a first date, and put Coke bottles front and center.

Mr. de Quinto said about the new campaign,

We’ve found over time that the more we position Coca-Cola as an icon, the smaller we become. The bigness of Coca-Cola resides in the fact that it’s a simple pleasure – so the humbler we are, the bigger we are. We want to help remind people why they love the product as much as they love the brand.

Ten television commercials will be part of the campaign, along with a 100 static images shot by fashion photographers Guy Arch and Nacho Ricci, capturing people around the world enjoying Coca-Cola in a variety of everyday moments, as well as a new song developed by Avicii, and interactive digital advertising.