In 2011, Coca-Cola faced a challenge many established brands encounter: staying relevant. Young consumers were losing interest, and sales were declining. The solution was simple yet revolutionary: personalisation. By replacing its logo with 150 of the most popular names in Australia, Coca-Cola invited consumers to “Share a Coke” with someone special. This change turned each bottle into a gift, social media post, or conversation starter. Success was immediate, with millions sharing their bottles online and even queuing outside stores to collect the names of friends and family.

“Coca-Cola’s ‘Share a Coke’ campaign shows us the potency of seeing the world through the customer’s eyes, proving that marketing is not just about selling products, but about connecting stories. It embodies what I have always said: Instead of using technology to automate processes, think about using technology to enhance human interaction.”

Steve Jobs

By 2014, the campaign had reached over 80 countries, including major markets like the United States, the United Kingdom, and China. Each country celebrated cultural diversity by incorporating popular local names and phrases. In China, surnames like “Li” and “Wang” decorated the bottles, while in the UK, names like “Jack” and “Olivia” took centre stage. This personalised approach contrasted sharply with the traditional one-size-fits-all marketing strategies that had dominated the industry for decades.

The “Share a Coke” campaign faced challenges. Critics argued it wasn’t inclusive enough, as consumers with unique names often felt left out. Coca-Cola responded by launching an online platform allowing consumers to create personalised bottles with any name. Another innovation came in 2016 with the “selfie bottle“, featuring a built-in camera that captured photos mid-drink, embedding virality into the product to turn each sip into a shareable moment.

Building on this success, Coca-Cola has now announced a new iteration focused on Diet Coke. Until September 2024, UK fans can find personalised cans and bottles featuring over 150 popular names. Recognising that some fans might not find their names on the shelves.

Diet Coke is also offering 4,000 chances to win a personalised can. By purchasing a Diet Coke, scanning a QR code, and downloading the Coca-Cola app, consumers can enter to win. All entrants will also be automatically entered into a weekly prize draw for luxury experiences worth up to £5,000, reinforcing the concept of the “ultimate Diet Coke break.“

“We know how much our fans love a Diet Coke break—taking time for themselves in the midst of their busy lives—so, it made perfect sense for us to make that time even more special. We’re so excited to be bringing personalised cans to our fans this summer and we’d love to hear from them when they spot theirs in-store by tagging @DietCokeGB.”

Louise Maugest, Senior Marketing Director for Diet Coke

The decision to revisit and expand the “Share a Coke” concept has drawn praise from marketing experts. Olivia Mae Hanlon, Founder of Girls in Marketing, highlights the importance of recycling successful ideas while Laura Kinsman, Digital Account Manager at KW Marketing, reflects on the campaign’s enduring success:

“STOP being afraid to repurpose and recycle your old content… The Coca-Cola Company always does this so well. They have recently reinvented their iconic Share a Coke campaign with personalised names, focusing on their Diet Coke brand and leaning into the ‘Diet Coke break’ craze. This is a key example that it’s not about reinventing the wheel in marketing. Review and reflect, then rinse and repeat.”

Olivia Mae Hanlon, Founder of Girls in Marketing

“If it ain’t broke… don’t fix it! The campaigns that stand the test of time are some of the BEST. The campaigns you remember randomly years down the line. Not every piece of marketing WILL be this and that’s normal… and EXPECTED. But when it happens, it’s ICONIC.”

Laura Kinsman, Digital Account Manager at KW Marketing

Coca-Cola’s ‘Share a Coke’ campaign demonstrates the remarkable power of personalisation, turning a simple bottle design into a compelling conversation starter. From its initial success in Australia to the recent Diet Coke campaign, Coca-Cola has broken generational and geographical barriers, one name at a time.

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The Happy Prize Company was founded by Justine Clement over 8 years ago and they’re excited to be re-joining the IPM after so many years of earlier support. Justine was the CEO of Unmissable, one of the forerunners of the prize management agency scene and has always been a fan of our work here at the IPM in supporting brands and agencies through their many lifecycles.  

The Happy Prize Company is a prize creation and management agency that creates and manages both straightforward off-the-shelf, as well as bespoke, unforgettable concepts, for promotional marketing prizes, staff and trade rewards, travel incentives and brand partnerships. They’re also proud to be a re-certified B Corp, too. That means, where relevant, they love creating more meaningful experiences as prizes for brands and agency partners who share their values: think experiences that teach people about wellbeing, ethics, a sense of purpose and reigniting a passion for, and an understanding of, the natural world.  They wholeheartedly believe that their approach positively impacts the campaigns they are asked to work on. In the main, their offering consists of off-the-shelf, or bespoke, ATOL/ABTA bonded overseas travel experiences, UK experiences, vouchers, electronic goods, sports-themed, music-themed, and money-can’t-buy prizes.

Don’t just take our word for any of this. As one of their clients said about them “Justine and her team at The Happy Prize Company completely understand the demands of building award-winning campaigns and deliver every time. They come up with creative ideas which help to bring concepts to life and act as a true member of the team. I would recommend them every time.”

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Award winning travel, prize and fulfilment agency Cloud Nine Incentives is growing its full service
offering with the appointment of Emma Coleman, Director of Events.
Joining from BCD Meetings & Events, Emma will harness her experience across multiple sectors
to drive Cloud Nine’s events division forward; an important strategic pillar for the agency.
Founder and Director Michael Chambers says, “As Cloud Nine Incentives enters its 13th year,
it’s critical we continue to innovate and deliver excellent service. Growing our events team means
we can offer a ‘one stop shop’ to clients.
I am delighted to welcome Emma to the Cloud Nine team. Her wealth of events experience and
passion for exceptional service levels will help steer the agency into its next chapter.”
With an amplified prize and promotions capability, brands will receive seamless, end to end
campaign management, with their customers at the heart of the journey.

Emma Coleman, “I am delighted to join Cloud Nine Incentives, a leader in their field working with
some fantastic brands. Their ethos of curating standout experiences alongside providing
excellent customer service aligns perfectly with my own passion for events. My role, leading the
strategy and development of the events offering, sparks a new chapter for Cloud Nine and I’m
delighted to be involved at the beginning of this exciting journey.”

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Cloud Nine Incentives, the experts in travel prizes and promotions were at last weeks IPM Awards ceremony both winning trophies and offering prizes to the industry.

Co-founder and Director Sophie Chambers said ‘After a break of 4 years, it was our pleasure to sponsor the IPM Awards 2023 (and we even picked up a trophy of our own!).  To celebrate our being involved, we would love to offer you the  chance to win a fabulous weekend break in Madrid.

Just head over to www.uponcloudnine.co.uk/competition to enter*. Good luck!

*Terms apply. UK residents 18+ only. Ends 23:59 BST 14/10/23. No purchase necessary. Internet access required. To enter prize draw, participants need to complete the competition post form available on www.uponcloudnine.co.uk/competition. One entry per person. 1 x prize of a trip to Madrid for 2, return flights from a UK airport, 2 nights 4 hotel sharing a twin room. Specific travel terms apply. Promoter: Cloud Nine Incentives Ltd. Visit www.uponcloudnine.co.uk/competition for full terms.

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Activation was briefed by Wall’s to help drive awareness of their Scotch Eggs in Morrisons during the FIFA World Cup – the resulting social posts are some of the agency’s funnest work yet (even if we do say so themselves!).

As many of you may know, the World Cup is a prime occasion for snacking. So what better time to remind shoppers of Wall’s delicious Scotch Eggs?!  Of course, there’s a lot of noise around the World Cup, so the agency knew they had to work hard to stand out.

Their audience insight suggested the best way to drive awareness and increase consideration was to target their core audience with paid advertising on Facebook.  This ran over two weeks, falling nicely in line with the group stages of the World Cup.

Armed with more football puns than they knew what to do with – they came up with a trio of simple, fun and playful (or, slightly weird and random…) animations – all created to grab the attention of Morrisons shoppers.

To get people to interact with the posts (even though it wasn’t one of main aims to begin with), they incentivised one of the paid posts with a chance to win 1 of 5 Wall’s matchday snack packs.

To be in with a chance of winning, all people had to do was leave a comment telling us who else would be in their dream Eggland squad.  Comments flooded in quicker than you could say ‘Football’s coming home’.

Back of the net!

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Did anyone else find a renewed love of takeaways during lockdown? We know we did! Post lockdown one of the top things we all wanted to do was to go out for dinner with friends and family – 49% of UK adults surveyed saying it was something they missed! And now with the Cost of Living Crisis hitting us all hard, unfortunately going out for dinner or getting a takeaway is something we are all conscious of doing.

However, TLC Marketing have built an incredible Dining Network of restaurants and takeaways alike to offer to your customers, at a fraction of the cost to you. This means your customers can get back to doing what they love to do. TLC have created an e-book with insights for you to deep dive into and hopefully see how TLC could help you with your new campaign – take a look Here!

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2020 has been a pretty tough year that most of us in the events industry can’t wait to see the back of. But there have been some positives, and with Covid vaccines now being rolled out in the UK, there is finally some light at the end of the tunnel.

The Experiential Activation Community at The IPM is most definitely at the sharp end of live events and has arguably bared the early brunt of the effect of the pandemic.

Steve Simpson, Head of Leith Links at The Leith Agency explains that “Recent developments in vaccine efficacy, availability and planned roll-out to vulnerable groups in the very near future, definitely provides much needed light at the end of the tunnel for the experiential and event industry. Though we’re still looking at April/May for most of the at-risk groups to have received vaccination, it bodes well for the summer and second half of 2021, for clients and agencies to plan with an enhanced degree of confidence. Fans returning to live sport is another positive sign, but that said, we will still need clarity on the return to wider mass gatherings and venues before we can get too excited.”

Micebook, the event planners community asked five agency leaders to share their positives from 2020 and hopes and expectations for the year ahead. Find out what they had to say here.

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Creative agency Space has developed a campaign for Nature Valley that sees the UK’s #2 cereal bar brand^[1] teaming up with Tripadvisor, the world’s largest travel platform, to encourage Brits to explore some of the UK’s most beautiful nature spots, in a new £1.8 million #visitnature campaign.

The promotion, which will see Nature Valley become the first ever FMCG brand to partner with Tripadvisor in Europe, will run from 14^th September for six weeks.

Nature Valley-curated travel guides and bespoke trips, all designed to boost UK tourism by showcasing the stunning locations our country has to offer, will feature across the Tripadvisor site.

The content will be promoted via a raft of media activity, created by Space, which includes social media (Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest) and digital advertising, directing people to Nature Valley and Tripadvisor bespoke guides, inspiring them to book their next adventure. The campaign is also supported by TV.

The campaign takes its cues from the tourism industry’s advertising language and imagery, and inspires consumers to explore the nature on their doorsteps, supporting the brand’s global mission to encourage everyone to simply ‘get out more’. Nature-inspired scenes and Imagery featured in the campaign creative is sourced from Tripadvisor reviews of the locations, and activities featured in three Nature Valley-themed guides.

#visitnature also includes a competition, running across Facebook and Instagram, that encourages consumers to upload a photograph they have taken while outdoors, enjoying nature, tagging #visitnature and @naturevalley.  The winners will bag an ultimate trip to nature for four people, including Tripadvisor-recommended activities, and will see their images included as part of the campaign.

Helene Henderson, Brand Manager, Nature Valley, said: “With limited travel options in the coming months, we’re encouraging people across the country to fall in love with UK nature and enjoy the exact same escapism that a trip abroad can offer.

“Space has delivered a first-of-its-kind partnership for Nature Valley, and an exciting evolution of our Get Out More campaign which further highlights our tasty range of Nature Valley snack bars as the ideal accompaniment for an outdoor adventure.”

Sean Kelly, Associate Director, Space, said: “The lockdown restrictions in the UK have seen so many people begin to appreciate the joys of discovering the local beauty spots and attractions on their doorstep, and we want to encourage them to do this more. Tripadvisor was the perfect partner to join with Nature Valley’s mission to get everybody out more, providing guides and suggestions based on real reviews and experiences supporting our unique tourism theme.”

The #visitnature initiative is part of a whopping £10 million marketing investment by Nature Valley-owner General Mills, the #1 manufacturer in Better For You Snacks^[2], to support its three leading brands: Nature Valley, Fibre One and LÄRABAR.

The new campaign is expected to reach 5.6million people within Nature Valley’s target audience. Retailers are encouraged to stock up on the brand’s wide range of snack bars to meet increased demand.

^[1] Nielsen last 52 Weeks | Currency: USD | Market: Total Coverage including Discounters

^[2] Nielsen total coverage Latest 4 weeks

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A client recently asked the question, ‘what does the future of travel promotions look like?’.  It is a question I, and many of my colleagues and industry peers, have been asked repeatedly over recent weeks.  Optimism, pessimism, or realism has changed our daily perspective and warped our frequently unqualified and ‘at best’ prophetic responses.  But amidst all the expert analysis, and pure guess work, one fact above all others has become abundantly clear. The power of ‘Wanderlust’ will never be dampened.

The inherent desire to travel has been a bedrock of the promotional industry for many years, but on the 23rd March 2020 the promotional landscape in the UK changed overnight as lockdown came into effect.

Conscious of the potential fears of a society, now with limited movement outside of their own homes, and daily news feeds fuelling a growing fear of travel of any description – it was only natural for brands and business to look for alternative rewards to motivate sales and staff.  Travel was no longer a motivator as the fear of infection out-weighed any indulgent travel need – so many campaigns turned their focus on rewards that could be delivered into the home, and deal with the present. Travel Prizes and Promotions suffered their own lockdown and a change in approach was necessary.

From transforming living rooms into escape rooms, to sending personal celebrity videos messages, bringing a different culture into your home to online Michelin star cooking courses, brands were able to engage and reward their customers in the one place there was a  guarantee they would be able to deliver the prize.  They became part of the lock-down experienced and offered the opportunity for escapism, wrapped up in a big safety blanket.

Wanderlust, though, does not stay dormant for long.  As the weeks passed, this desire to stay indoors, to stay safe, has been taken over by our need for human interaction, and our desire to travel.  It has only taken a matter of weeks, but already Travel Promotions, and the opportunity to fulfil this ‘Wanderlust’, have bounced right back to the top of the promotional ladder.

As the nation slowly sees lockdown restrictions eased, the frustrations and limitations of the past weeks have manifested themselves on our psyche in many different ways – but for most of us the opportunity to soon be able to escape our homes and explore the outside world has become an overwhelming desire and need.

There is no question that Wanderlust is built into our DNA, it is the desire to feed the soul, and the fear of missing out of treasures yet to be discovered.  That said, COVID 19 has undoubtably had a dramatic impact on how the subject of travel promotions will now be addressed. One such consideration is that customers are quite likely to turn to trusted suppliers who have come through the recent challenges with strong credentials, as security (financial and health) is likely to outweigh riskier, and potentially cheaper, alternatives.

As the focus turns to the summer, and end of year campaigns, it is important to be sensitive to the fact that not all travel prizes can, or will, be delivered in 2020.  This however has not dampened the vision of many brand managers who also believe the promise of a once-in-a-lifetime trip sometime in the next 12-18 months, is just as powerful a reward that delivers an immediate fix. It feeds into our desire to have something concrete to hold onto through the difficult times, even if we must wait a little bit longer for it.  As demonstrated in recent campaigns such as The Sun newspaper’s reader promotion ‘Win a luxe adventure holiday for two to Peru’ or Specsavers’ ‘Weekend getaway to Madrid’. A recent article in National Geographic went as far as to highlight the positive impact on mental health the promise of future escape can have https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/2020/05/planning-a-trip-is-good-for-you-especially-during-pandemic/

For those still seeking an alternative short-term promotional solution, that can be guaranteed, domestic travel experiences have seen a huge resurgence. Ensuring that the experience is just as exciting and memorable, but taking away the necessity for air travel, has offered many a great short term, high impact solution. Brands are tapping into the UK’s treasures, with Waterstones offering a break to the Cotswolds and Sainsburys Magazine, a luxury trip to Cornwall. It is also a way for brands and companies to show support for their home economies and follows a shift towards more sustainable solutions.  While the desire to travel and explore will remain, there are ways of going about this in a sensitive manner that will resonate with many brands and customers.

Finally, there is the ‘Bucket List’ equation. More than ever, many of us have a sense of the fragility of life and of our freedoms.  There is no doubt that this will have stirred a desire to experience these ‘bucket list’ wishes as soon as possible, and promotions supporting this dream become a reality can certainly tap into this heightened awareness.

So while we all adapt to the new ‘post COVID promotional world’, it is clear that the power of Wanderlust will play a significant role in shaping our dreams and wishes.

David Heron is Co-head of Agency at The Black Tomato Agency

The post The Promotional Power of Wanderlust appeared first on IPM Bitesize.

As the weeks slip by, the consumer road map to recovery slowly becomes clearer.

More and more businesses are opening on a weekly basis and into July, we already know when as an example, the hospitality sector can kick start its season, albeit with restrictions in place.

Leisure centres, zoos/wildlife parks, theme parks for a nation perhaps planning more for staycation rather than European travel, will all again become options.

Businesses should therefore be planning their promotional messages to existing and prospective customers and users now to ensure they hit the ground running.

All of these business sectors (and more) are existing users of door drops as an intrusive and engaging medium, so for a possibly digitally fatigued public, a bright, colourful, well targeted leaflet with incentives landing on the doormat could be very welcome by its recipients.

Royal Mail door to door have in response overhauled their entire booking process, updated and improved their incentive schemes and are already open for business.

Key changes to the process are best summarised as :

Minimum spend – There is now no minimum spend and clients can book just one postal sector if required, with the charge per thousand calculated according to rate card, details upon application.

Booking lead times – Subject to agreement by Royal Mail, bookings can now be made with one week’s notice with no additional charge and the surcharge on two-week bookings will be waived.

Seasonal incentives (the summer incentive is available NOW) – The minimum incremental spend threshold has been removed and all incremental volume in excess of previous year’s activity will now be subject to a 20% discount. Customers booking in specific weeks within July and August for the first time, will have a discounted rate applied to their entire volume.

Late Sales – The service is now extended to new users on their first activity. In addition to the discounted rate a new user already accesses, postal sectors may be booked through Late Sales, with a further discount applied.

Long term lapsed or potential large users – To enable long-term lapsed or potential large volume customers to trial the Door to Door service and prove the effectiveness of the channel versus other media, heavily discounted rates are available.

Incentive for growth schemes – The minimum incremental requirement has been reduced to 100,000 items.

Existing clients and new users should seek experienced guidance of how to maximise the potential value these opportunities present.

Approved resellers of the Royal Mail D2D service such as ourselves are perfectly placed to provide guidance on how to navigate the planning and booking process to help clients achieve promotional objectives using door drops.

We can be contacted at www.letterboxconsultancy.com or on 01992 637333 to discuss this package in more detail.

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