Coke is a winner on Facebook, Twitter
— -- ATLANTA — For years, Coca-Cola has told us that so many parts of life "go better" with the iconic soft drink. You can now add social media to the list as well.
Coca-Cola has quietly become one of the most popular brands on Facebook, along with such pop-culture icons as Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Eminem. Coke, with its 35 million fans, is the 16th-most-popular Facebook page. Disney is No. 23.
Advertising Age this week named Coke its "Marketer of the Year," citing it as an example of how small and midsize brands also "can use creative stunts and strategic partnerships to get a lot done on a smaller budget."
On Facebook, Coca-Cola has received more than 35 million "likes," and Wendy Clark, Coke's senior vice president of integrated marketing who oversees the social-media effort, says having all those fans respond to Coke is meaningful.
"Fans are twice as likely to consume and 10 times more likely to purchase than non-fans," she says, in an interview at Coke headquarters here.
The emphasis on social media has clearly paid off, even though it's only part of Coke's overall $2.9 billion advertising strategy for TV, radio, Internet, print advertising and billboards.
Coke, the world's largest beverage company with some 500 different drinks — soft drinks, teas, coffees, juices and water — says its overall beverage volume is up 6% worldwide year to date; 3% for Coke alone. About 1.7 billion drinks of Coke are served daily in cans and bottles and from vending machines.
USA TODAY visited Coke here in an off-campus semi-secret (there's no Coke branding on the outside) warehouse facility less than a mile from Coke headquarters. Inside, there are no iconic red Coke logos. The one nod to its legacy: a new Coke vending machine that offers 125 different flavor combinations of Coke, Sprite, Fanta and other company products.
The interview was in a large round conference room, with Coke executives projecting Facebook and Twitter pages during the conversation. Clark gives credit to the Facebook Coke page to
two fans, Dusty Sorg and Michael Jedrzejewski, an actor and writer from Los Angeles, who started the Coca-Cola fan page on Facebook. Once the page surpassed 1 million fans, Facebook informed Coke that the page violated its rules and needed to be run by Coke, not fans.
Coke decided that instead of taking it down, it would embrace the community. The two founders are clearly credited and work for Coke now on a freelance basis.
Whether members enthuse about their love of Coke and its products or blast the company, the posts stay up, Clark says. "You can't curate that conversation," she says. "The community will curate it." (Porn and pitches for "free iPads" and the like do come down.)
Letting fans be fans on Facebook, instead of turning the page into a corporate mouthpiece, has paid off, says Jedrzejewski. "People are savvy enough to know when a Facebook page is contrived and manufactured."
The message for marketers: "Don't squander an opportunity with people who are passionate about their brand," says Janice Smithers, a senior media strategist at Covario, a San Diego firm that helps companies with their search marketing campaigns. She's studied brands on Facebook and found that many don't communicate with their fans, don't build apps or have contests for them, as Coke does.
