Mathew's comments - Latest Comments in Coke: Still unclear on the concept

Re: Coke: Still unclear on the concept

Mathew Ingram — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 00:15:48 -0000

Thanks for the comment, Joy -- but I'm not sure that it's all that relevant how long Mr. Stichweh had been at Coke, or whether he was involved in the Eepybird decision or not. My point is that if he doesn't recognize engagement as being valuable then I think he needs to give his head a shake.

As for the main measurement of engagement being sales, obviously the measurement of a business like Coke's is always going to be sales. But where do you look for the sales impact of engagement with your brand -- two weeks out? Two months out? Two years out? I think smart brands take a leap of faith at some point that engagement is going to translate into sales, even if it isn't immediately noticeable.

Re: Coke: Still unclear on the concept

joy — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 21:49:54 -0000

I was in that session at Ad Tech where Stichweh spoke, and where was asked about the Eepybird episode.

As it turns out, he has only been employed by Coke for four months, and he wasn't even present for the decision making process behind the Eepybird decision. He tread very, very carefully around the question...and I think, it gives his quote a different meaning.

But, yes, elsewhere he did say the main measurement for engagement was, in the end, sales. And while some readers could question that, no other session at Ad Tech could come up with a better answer. Even the session with Ze Frank.

Re: Coke: Still unclear on the concept

Meg — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 19:07:27 -0000

Matthew, you couldn't be more correct, my friend. Coca-Cola's John Stichweh is missing the entire point of marketing in today's ever changing world. Coke MUST bring the product closer to the people. It's not so much about selling more cases of Coke as it is about engaging a very elusive and hard to reach demo by embracing their creativity. Coke knows they must acknowledge the consumer and they will continue to do it in even bigger ways, despite the Stichweh's of the organization. Stichweh's are important, too. Stichweh's are old school. Coke needs its bottle-pushers. Stichweh has his place as a good bottle-pusher at Coke or at any beverage concern. But Esther Lee, Mary Minnick and Chuck Fruit have all wondered out loud how to "make Coke bigger while acting smaller" and how to "engage" the public. HELLO! They've gone outside traditional agencies to find new ideas that engage AND defy the very savvy TiVo, iPod, CGM/UGC generation. They may have taken a cautious approach at first, but they're hip now and if they're smart, they will lead the way in revolutionizing advertising/marketing as we (and Stichweh) once knew it instead of watching and waiting and listening to their bottle-pushers. They need to listen to Mary Minnick, who is a visionary. They will.

Re: Coke: Still unclear on the concept

Mathew Ingram — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 15:38:53 -0000

Thanks, Angela. I did mention the Revver connection pretty high up, but I will make it clear that the Coke campaign also involved Revver and not YouTube. Thanks for stopping by.

Re: Coke: Still unclear on the concept

Angela Wilson Gyetvan — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 15:12:34 -0000

Hi, Mathew:

Thanks for the coverage. I do need to mention that the Extreme Diet Coke and Mentos Experiment debuted this summer on Revver, not YouTube. As a matter of fact, Fritz and Stephen specifically requested that folks NOT post their videos on YouTube because EepyBird derived no compensation for the views. If you'll look at the EepyBird site, you'll see the original "Revverized" video: http://www.eepybird.com/dcm1.html. We did approach Coke about advertising on the video at the time, but they were not interested. Mentos, however, bought out the entire inventory.