The battle with sugar…Coca-Cola introduces a subtle new campaign offering more choice #TasteTheFeeling

As many people around the world make healthy lifestyle choices around the intake of sugar, one company that often suffers from accusations of producing products with high sugar content is the Coca-Cola Company. And from my live Periscope coverage of the launch of Coca-Cola’s new ‘Taste The Feeling’ campaign in Dubai, it was clear that sugar has become a barrier between many consumers and the world-renowned soda drink – as several viewers of my live feed ‘popped’ questions about the amount of sugar in Coke.

Well, in many ways than one, that is what Coca-Cola’s  ‘Taste The Feeling’ campaign hopes to do – give choice to consumers to choose which variant of Coca-Cola suits their needs. According to the Coca-Cola Company, over the years it has tried to create awareness for the many variants of Coca-Cola, including the low or zero sugar products. However, consumers failed to fully buy into the other variants largely because of their emotional attachments to the iconic Coke Classic. Consumers felt that taking the other options such as  Diet, Zero, Life and Light isolated them from being part of the real Coca-Cola experience. Therefore, consumers felt that separate adverts/campaigns on those other variants were aimed to take them away from the iconic Coca-Cola that everyone knew, thus these campaigns were not successful around the world. 

The new strategy with ‘Taste The Feeling’ is to bring all of these variants under one brand and have a common campaign for them. Therefore the new adverts for Coca-Cola will have all variants in one commercial, without singling out any specific one. That way, consumers would feel that all variants are part of one big Coke family. Then it would eventually come to a matter of choice based on age, mood, and other lifestyle choices.

Creators of new Coca-cola theme song, performing at Dubai Launch

As many as 10 exciting TV commercials, 100 campaign images, a new music anthem and audio signature were unveiled during the launch in Dubai.

Marcos De Quinto, Chief Marketing Officer at Coca-Cola Company making his presentation on new campaign

According to Marcos De Quinto, Chief Marketing Officer at Coca-Cola Company, similar events will be held around other regions of the world to gradually roll out the new strategy based on variants available to those specific regions.

At the end of the day, it is a matter of Choice – Marcos De Quinto

The ‘Taste The Feeling’ campaign comes amid increasing voices being heard about more healthy and sugar-free diets. Responding to the question on whether such calls constitute a major challenge to Coca-Cola, De Quinto said:

“Soft drinks are not bad, not bad at all. The problem is consumption of sugar. Soft drinks, some of them, have sugar. But sugar can be found in many products. The difference is that the Coca-Cola company, first of all, has launched a range of products that gives choice to consumers and they can choose a sugar version or a non-sugar version. So you don’t have to abandon your product and your brand, because they all have the same brand and they all have the same personality. The only thing is that we, sometimes, attract a lot of attention because of importance of the brand.”

Rodolfo Echeverria, Vice-President, Global Creative Connections and Digital at Coca-cola

Rodolfo Echeverria, Vice-President, Global Creative Connections and Digital at the company also revealed that ‘Taste The Feeling’ will come in many languages. The campaign is expected to launch in Ghana in March, and i cannot wait to see how ‘Taste The Feeling’ would be presented in Ghana.