2009 Silver Effie Winner

“Coke/Coke Zero Taste Similarity”

Category: Beverages Non-Alcohol

Brand/Client: Coca-Cola Zero
Primary Agency: Crispin Porter + Bogusky
Media Agency: Mediavest USA

Strategic Challenge

Convince guys that Coke Zero tastes like Coke. .

Three years into its launch Coke Zero was growing at a respectable level. But to deliver the share
increase required, Coke Zero had to gain volume growth by appealing to men 18-34 who
represented the largest untapped audience for diet sodas. Many 18-34 year old guys said that diet
sodas tasted bad and had the baggage of being overly feminine. They preferred the taste of full
sugar sodas but as they matured, were starting to move to lower calorie options such as energy
drinks, water or sports drinks in exchange for sodas (source: Coke Zero Exploratory Groups,
6/07).

The strategic challenge was to convince guys that Coke Zero really does taste like Coke. But this
challenge was daunting for two reasons:

A) The very people we wanted to appeal to, young men 18-34, were the most adverse to the idea
of diet sodas because of perceived bad taste.

B) Not only did we need to convince these guys that Coke Zero tasted good-- we needed to
convince them it tasted as good as the flagship leader of the Cola category- Coca-Cola.

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 Objectives

The three main objectives for communications were clear:

• In the third year of Coke Zero’s launch, we had to get brand awareness numbers up 6%
from the previous year with our male target of 18-34

• We had to transfer the awareness to trial, growing among our target audience, with a goal
of 45%

• And to get to that trial we had to overcome the biggest barrier--taste skepticism--as
measured by increased belief that Coke Zero “Tastes like Coke” with the most incredulous
of consumers, men 18-34. We would also look at measures such as “favorite brand” and
“brand for me” to increase as well to support the longer-term emotional connection we
hoped to forge for the brand.

The Big Idea

The “taste similarity” between Coke and Coke Zero creates taste confusion.

Guys think DIET is a four-letter word.

This was the overwhelming sentiment of young adult men about the diet category as a whole and
specifically the diet soda category. We knew from speaking with guys, especially younger guys,
that they approach the diet category with an inherent skepticism and negative perception of taste.
But these same guys know how Coca-Cola tastes and they love it. If they could get the taste of
Coke without the calories, it would be “Nirvana.” But it would really have to taste like Coke and
they would need some specific “proof” of that great taste to even try it.

In consumer research, people who tried Coke Zero really felt that it tasted like Coke (Brand Qual
research 06-07). So much so that there was sometimes confusion over which product was which.
Using a creative device that focused on the taste similarity rather than on the zero calorie option
seemed the smartest way to appeal to this target. Creative would need to speak to Coke taste but
in a way that felt funny, clever and entertaining to this savvy audience.

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 Bringing the Idea to Life

Communication Strategy

We needed to appeal to our male target and deliver the Real Coke Taste message. Mainthrust
creative was developed for broad reaching mediums like out of home and cinema to help build
awareness, along with more targeted creative like print, TV, digital and radio to drive trial. To give
Zero more mega-brand leadership status, the brand took over sports properties previously
associated with the Coke brand, including Nascar, NCAA and Fantasy Football. Not only did the
property and sponsorship help create the connection between Coke taste and Coke Zero but just
as importantly these properties appealed to guys in our target demo.

Mainthrust Creative- “A Clear Case of Taste Infringement”

The genesis of the main creative campaign came from the idea that the Coke Brand team would
seek legal ramifications for Coke Zero “stealing” its coveted taste in a “taste infringement” legal
claim. Using the genre of self-depreciating humor from “The Office” and “The Daily Show”, the
Mainthrust TV campaign was made to look like “found footage” from the Coca-Cola Company’s
legal department. Coke Zero needed to get savvy guys to pay attention to a soft-drink message in
a sea of media messages. To do that, Zero caught them totally off-guard with commercials that
didn’t look like commercials and teamed up with a targeted list of cable and late night networks
offering high coverage against M18-34 like, Spike, MTV, Comedy Central, ESPN and ABC’s Jimmy
Kimmel. TV Spots also ran online as pre-roll and post-roll with partners like Yahoo!, E! Online, Fox
Entertainment, CelebTV and MTVu. Coke Zero also accessed a corporate sponsorship with the
cinema channel to bring the executions onto 87% of all US theatres.

In addition to TV and cinema, Print and out of home creative continued the taste similarity
message with a bold a headline that tied back to “taste infringement.” A strategic outdoor network
buy included 12 major markets with the message of “taste infringement” and print in targeted
male publications.

Radio creative was developed to reinforce Zero’s taste message within the restaurant
environment, a key distribution channel for all Coca-Cola products since Coke is commonly paired
with food. In addition to furthering the overall message, the radio creative became a tool to help
push Zero further into valves at a wide range of national food service customers, improving
availability and aiding trial. The radio also provided a great base message for local radio tags for
local offers and volume driving activities in market.

NCAA

By March of 2008 Coke Zero was becoming a tour de force and the brand had garnered an official
sponsorship opportunity with the NCAA property. At the Final Four event in San Antonio a “Stop
Coke Zero” rally and sampling event was “hosted” by the Coke Brand Managers from the TV
campaign as part of their ongoing effort to call attention to taste similarity. The sampling
presented a clever way for consumers to experience how much Zero really tasted like Coke. And
helped offer live “proof” of the taste similarity.

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 Surrounding both on-air and online components with :30 spots and custom sponsorships, Coke
Zero was integrated into all aspects of the NCAA property, owning content such as NCAA’s/CBS
Bracket Pool Challenge and co-owning NCAA’s March Madness on Demand. Within these properties
Coke Zero’s creative executions were integrated seamlessly including the Coke Zero Bracket-o-
matic tool which allowed guys to easily select their brackets within the NCAA/CBS Bracket Pool
Challenge online.

NASCAR

In the summer of 2008 Coke Zero raised the checkered flag of Nascar with its sponsorship of the
inaugural Coke Zero 400 race, giving the brand premiere presence with Nascar fans. The Nascar
communication included a custom TV execution featuring Coke brand managers taking over a
Nascar TV production and pleading with a range of Nascar drivers to forego their new connection
with Coke Zero. Their misguided logic-- first Coke Zero stole Coke’s taste, now it was taking over
Coke’s sports properties. The creative ran in TV along with full cinema pre-feature media.

To drive immediate consumption and encourage purchase on-the-go, Coke Zero utilized radio
tagged with retailer mentions in highly concentrated NASCAR markets as well as print ads in race
venues and outdoor bulletins. And with an exciting online game, “Rooftop Racer” featuring driver
Elliot Sadler, consumers were brought into the driver’s seat of a virtual Nascar race, while trying to
keep the car powered by Coke Zero.

FANTASY FOOTBALL

Coke Zero invested in an integrated sponsorship with Fantasy Football online reaching M18-34
through the largest and most frequented platforms, Yahoo! and ESPN. The core of the fantasy
football movement is the possibility to win bragging rights after each match up as well as at the
end of the season. So it only makes sense that Real Coke Taste and Zero Calories could provide
"real" tools to taunt fantasy opponents. One of these tools included an online Victory Dance, which
gave consumers a chance to choreograph their very own touchdown moves to send to their
fantasy opponents. The message was "Real Coke Taste, Zero Calories...This is NO Fantasy."

Effie® Awards
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property laws. This brief may be displayed, reformatted and printed for your personal use only. By using this site, you agree not to
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 Communications Touch Points
TV Packaging Trade Shows
Spots Product Design Sponsorship
Branded Content Cinema Retail Experience
Sponsorship Interactive POP
Product placement Online Ads Video
Radio Web site In-Store Merchandizing
Spots Viral video Sales Promotion
Merchandising Video skins/bugs Retailtainment
Program/content Social Networking sites Guerrilla
Print Podcasts Street Teams
Trade/Professional Gaming Tagging
Newspaper Mobile Phone Wraps
Consumer Magazine Other_____________ Buzz Marketing
Print partnership OOH Ambient Media
Direct Airport Sampling/Trial
Mail Transit Consumer Involvement
Email Billboard WOM
PR Place Based Consumer Generated
Events Other_____________ Viral
Other ____________

Additional Marketing Components:

None

Reach:

National

Total Media Expenditure:

$40 million and over

Results

Results-Summary

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 Coke Zero reached and exceeded the key objectives of the campaign including awareness, trial and
attribute ratings of “tastes like Coke”. These efforts helped Coke Zero move from a 1.2% share to
a 1.6% share within the total CSD category, achieving the share goal.

Results: Brand Awareness

• From Aug. 07 thru Aug. 08, Coke Zero saw overall brand awareness surpass the goal of 90%
with the target audience
• And from over 80% with total male CSD Users, exceeding the 6% growth objective
(Source: Coke Zero Unaided Awareness Tracking Wave 6-Q3 2008 Omnibus Research Study)

18-34 Year Old Males Total Males

100%

96%
90%
83% 81% 79% 82% 81%
77% 74% 74%

0%
W2 W3 W4 W5 W6 W2 W3 W4 W5 W6
(8/07) (10/07) (1/08) (5/08) (8/08) (8/07) (10/07) (1/08) (5/08) (8/08)

Aided Awareness

Results: Trial

• Zero surpassed its goal of trial among with our target audience of Males 18-34, reaching
above the goal of 45% (Source: Coke Zero Imagery Tracking Report (Adult Wave) Q3 2008
Omnibus Research study)
50

Coca-Cola Zero Consumption: 45

% of respondents who are triers/drinkers
40
M e n 18 - 3 4
35 Gen P o p
T o tal C SD
30

25

20
Results: Overcoming Taste Skepticism Aug. Oct. 07 Jan. 08 M ay. Aug.
07 08 08

• Within the 12-month period ending 8/08, Zero had exceeded its goal of increasing consumer
recognition that Coke Zero “Tastes like Coke,” going from above 40%
• “Brand For Me” and “Favorite Brand” attributes also went up significantly higher, with + 9%
and +13% respectively (Source: Coke Zero Imagery Tracking Report (Adult Wave) Q3 2008

Effie® Awards
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Tel: 212-687-3280 Fax: 212-557-9242

©2009: The information available through effie.org is the property of the Effie Awards and is protected by copyright and other intellectual
property laws. This brief may be displayed, reformatted and printed for your personal use only. By using this site, you agree not to
reproduce, retransmit, distribute, sell, publicly display, publish or broadcast the information to anyone without the prior written consent of
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 Omnibus Research study).

Anything else going on that might have helped drive results?

• The success of the consumer campaign created excitement with the sales force and key
bottling partners which in turn helped drive increased interest and availability with Coke Zero’s
commercial and customer channel. During this time period Coke Zero was able to double its
fountain valve penetration. And increase distribution in key on-premise channels by 25%
(Source: Matrix, 2008 and US Bottler Case Sales - ASR Reporting Tool).

• The interest and cultural awareness of Coke Zero took off as popular media outlets took notice
of the campaign including trade press as well as mainstream business media such as USA
Today and The CBS Early Show.

Effie® Awards
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th

Tel: 212-687-3280 Fax: 212-557-9242

©2009: The information available through effie.org is the property of the Effie Awards and is protected by copyright and other intellectual
property laws. This brief may be displayed, reformatted and printed for your personal use only. By using this site, you agree not to
reproduce, retransmit, distribute, sell, publicly display, publish or broadcast the information to anyone without the prior written consent of
the Effie Awards.