Coke gets customers to say ‘Ahh’ with its digital marketing approach

Published August 21, 2013 at 9:13 am

Coca-Cola is a world-renowned company, with a recognizable logo and already-famous advertising campaigns for its product—polar bears and Santa Claus anyone?

Those are both older, classic campaigns though. Coke recently decided that to stay current and meet the needs of its younger customer base, it needed to tweak its marketing strategies.

About six months ago, the soda company created its first all-digital campaign, called the “Ahh Effect.” First, there was Ahh.com. But, Coca-Cola kept going and created URLs that added one “h” at a time—Ahhh.com, Ahhhh.com, etc.—building up to 40 different sites with varied user experiences. Eventually, there will be 61 versions.

Currently, 4 million customers have visited the 40 websites, averaging visits of just over two minutes per page. Half of the traffic has been organic, which means that the media has been shared between users.

The web-based marketing approach worked. A television spot may have reached more viewers, but their attention would have been held for a fraction of the time (30 seconds) and they likely wouldn’t have been as engaged as they were with the Ahh Effect.

Regardless of the audience that a company is attempting to reach, it is important to find a way to get their attention while still adhering to the brand. That way, marketing fulfillment is achieved and a business remains memorable.

Coca-Cola brand manager Meg Haley told the news source that this is one of the company’s most-researched campaigns. While it hasn’t necessarily proved that engagement leads to more purchases, Haley added that Coke is very satisfied with the results.

“So far, what we’re hearing is for those that might not have been frequent drinkers there’s a shift in preference,” she said. “It’s cool, it’s relevant. The campaign lends itself to purchase intent.”