Coke Zero: ‘Tis the Season to get Ugly

With Christmas just a little over two weeks away, it’s difficult to ignore all the holiday-themed advertising around us. While consumers are bombarded with thousands of Christmas messages on a daily basis, advertisers are now being forced to think of unique and creative ways to break through the clutter and reach their target market. What better way to do this than reach them personally through social media?

A recent example of a company that created a successful holiday-themed social media campaign is Coca-Cola. With the help of ad agency, Droga5, the company launched the “Coke Zero Sweater Generator”, a website consumers could visit to create their own customized ugly Christmas sweater. After designing a sweater, it would then be posted in an online gallery where the public could vote for their favourite designs. To gain more votes, users were encouraged to post their designs on their Facebook and Twitter profiles. The company also encouraged fans to connect with each other using the hashtag, #sweatergenerator. The campaign began in mid-November and lasted for just two weeks. On December 1, the 100 sweaters with the most votes were actually created and sent to the designers. 

A screenshot from the "Coke Zero Sweater Generator" website.

While the final results of the campaign have not yet been released, it was recently announced that nearly 18,000 sweaters were created within the first 36 hours of the website launch. I can only assume that this number grew within the two-week campaign period. In fact, I saw multiple friends on my own Facebook account post photos and links to their ugly Christmas sweater designs.

The campaign is successful for multiple reasons, including the fact that it demonstrates that Coca-Cola understands their target market. After conducting research, they realized that ugly Christmas sweater parties have become a holiday tradition for millennials. They were able to tap into this insight and create an entertaining and memorable way for consumers to interact with their brand. In addition to this, because users had to share their designs to gather votes, the brand received additional exposure across social media. By actually producing the top 100 sweaters, the brand will continue to gain more attention, as they will very likely become a topic of conversation when consumers actually wear them to their ugly Christmas sweater parties. 

While the “Sweater Generator” may be forgotten about after people pack up their sweaters for the season, as Coca-Cola demonstrates, it’s important for advertisers to understand what’s relevant in their target market’s life all year round. Regardless of the length of the campaign, if advertisers can tap into a trend their target market follows, they will likely find success. 

Source: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2308300/coke-zero-helps-millennials-design-the-perfect-ugly-holiday-sweater