Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” Campaign — Case Study

Arunalo Sinha Roy
3 min readMay 18, 2023

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Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign is one of the most remarkable examples of how marketing can bring change. This campaign will remain one of the most innovative campaigns in the marketing world as well as in the business world.

Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign
Source -wikipedia
The Origins of the Share a Coke Campaign
The Share a Coke campaign was created by Coca-Cola Australia in 2011. The campaign was developed by Leo Burnett Australia and was inspired by the idea of using personal names to connect with consumers on a more emotional level. The campaign was a huge success in Australia and was quickly rolled out to other countries around the world.The campaign used a list of the most popular names which includes nicknames and generic titles aiming to have people go out and buy a Coke for their friends and lived one and create a moment. The main concept of the campaign was to replace the Coca-Cola logo on bottles and cans with popular first names. The campaign featured over 1,000 names, including both common and uncommon names, as well as nicknames and terms of endearment such as “mom” and “dad”. This allowed customers to find and share their own personalized Coke bottles with friends and family. The ads encouraged customers to find and share their own personalized Coke bottles and cans on social media using the hashtag #ShareaCoke.

The purpose of the campaign was to create more personal relations with customers and create more memorable moments.

The Impact of Share a Coke Campaign
The Share a Coke campaign has been a huge success for Coca-Cola. The campaign has helped to increase brand awareness, sales, and social media engagement. In the United States, for example, the Share a Coke campaign is credited with increasing sales by more than 2%. This campaign is studied by Marketers all over the world as a reference to one of the most unique campaigns ever created. In 2013, the Share a Coke campaign won a Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

The campaign was supported by a massive advertising and social media effort, with television, print, outdoor, and digital ads featuring images of people sharing a Coke with friends and loved ones.

Major Impacts

Increase in sales by more than 2%
Brand image and value increased
Social media engagement of over 1 billion
Worldwide success
Positive social impact
Increased Brand Awareness, Sales, and Social media presence
The Share a Coke campaign has had a positive impact on consumers. The campaign has helped to create a more personal connection between Coca-Cola and its customers. The campaign has also helped to promote positive social interactions. For example, people have been sharing photos of themselves finding bottles with their names on them on social media. The Share a Coke campaign has also helped to raise awareness of important social issues. For example, in 2014, Coca-Cola released a limited-edition line of Share a Coke bottles with the names of people who had been affected by bullying.

The contribution to the marketing world
This campaign studied in many Universities and courses so that Aspiring marketers can learn how personalization can change the whole marketing. I learned about this campaign when I was doing my Diploma in MICA.

I can recall some brand that gives away stickers, tags, and many more small goodies with every purchase. I have parched from some brands that gave me a little note where my name is written with a small note. Because of that effort, I remember the brand names.

Personalization is implemented in Email Marketing in recent times. We have Zomato, Swiggy, Amazone, Flipkart, and many more brands leveraging this Personalized Marketing method. New-age marketers should learn about these case studies because this kind of campaign laid the foundation of Inbound Marketing.

The Share a Coke campaign is a great example of how a creative marketing campaign can help a brand to connect with consumers on a deeper level. The campaign has been a huge success for Coca-Cola, and it is likely to continue to be a success in the years to come
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