International beverage giant Coca-Cola still believes in the power of traditional media in the digital age, according to a senior marketer at the brand, with TV and outdoor set to lead the brand’s new campaign in Australia.
“Television is still the best reach for your dollar in Australia,” said Lucie Austin, Marketing Director of Coca-Cola South Pacific, in an interview with The Australian Financial Review ahead of the brand’s 80th anniversary campaign launch.
“That’s not true in all markets, but it’s certainly true here,” she added.
Television and outdoor will play prominent roles, with the brand also rethinking its approach to social media and brand ambassadors in Australia.
Though Coca-Cola has featured some of Australia’s biggest international celebrities in its previous marketing, the company has elected to focus on three regular consumers who happen to have huge Coca-Cola memorabilia collections, in what Austin described as a “story-telling, grassroots” approach.
Austin also called out social media giants, saying that platforms under pressure for recent brand safety and fraud controversial still have “work to do in cleaning themselves up”.
“Coca-Cola South Pacific has not had an issue, but I know plenty of counterparts who have and I wouldn’t be so arrogant to say that at the moment, it couldn’t happen [here],” she said.
With the EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation affecting brands internationally – not only in EU markets – Austin noted that marketers must be more vigilant in their social media marketing in general.
“People assume GDPR is just a Europe thing but it has impacted everybody. Our agencies and ourselves have to be so vigilant on the social side, it’s a matter of never being happy,” she said.
“Television is still the best reach for your dollar in Australia,” said Lucie Austin, Marketing Director of Coca-Cola South Pacific, in an interview with The Australian Financial Review ahead of the brand’s 80th anniversary campaign launch.
“That’s not true in all markets, but it’s certainly true here,” she added.
Television and outdoor will play prominent roles, with the brand also rethinking its approach to social media and brand ambassadors in Australia.
Though Coca-Cola has featured some of Australia’s biggest international celebrities in its previous marketing, the company has elected to focus on three regular consumers who happen to have huge Coca-Cola memorabilia collections, in what Austin described as a “story-telling, grassroots” approach.
Austin also called out social media giants, saying that platforms under pressure for recent brand safety and fraud controversial still have “work to do in cleaning themselves up”.
“Coca-Cola South Pacific has not had an issue, but I know plenty of counterparts who have and I wouldn’t be so arrogant to say that at the moment, it couldn’t happen [here],” she said.
With the EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation affecting brands internationally – not only in EU markets – Austin noted that marketers must be more vigilant in their social media marketing in general.
“People assume GDPR is just a Europe thing but it has impacted everybody. Our agencies and ourselves have to be so vigilant on the social side, it’s a matter of never being happy,” she said.
Sourced from Australian Financial Review; additional content by WARC staff
