Previously, I looked at Coca-Cola's general role in Social Media. I analyzed their activity on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Instagram. I also looked at their website and used analytic tools like Social Mention, Social Baker, Ice Rocket, and Google Trends to analyze their general presence in the new media.
What I learnt? Coca-Cola is huge!
Instead of trying to dissect the entire brand, I will look at their latest campaign: #ShareTheSound, which is Coke's attempt at creating an #AIDSFREEGENERATION. The campaign seeks to raise awareness on AIDS. Coca-Cola is often involved with causes. One of its biggest cause campaign was to save polar bears. Remember that? When all the cans were white and had a bear on it?
If you remember, in Part 1, I had mentioned that their page is blank with no posts from the company. It appears that it might have just been down. Currently there are a ton of posts.
This page is where I discovered this campaign. It is the first thing on their page right now and was posted a day ago. Coke does a good job of involving the groundswell by asking them to get the message out. The video is very cute and amicable. It reeks of brilliant Coca-Cola advertising.
As cute as the video is, the comments on FB are not positive! After going through 20 comments, I did not find a single possible comment. It's not the video they are criticizing. Coca-Cola has been questioned for the arguably negative impact that it has had in rural India. In the past few weeks, this the company has been under fire.
Read this for more information: Farmers Fight Coca-Cola as India’s Groundwater Dries Up
It appears that the groundswell has picked up on the irony of Coca-Cola supporting a social cause at a time when, in many people's opinion it is destroying the lives of so many people.
One of the commenters shares a video that explains in simple terms, what Coca-Cola is doing in India. The groundswell is communicating with one another and educating one another on issues that they care about. They have come up with their own hashtag to mock Coca-Cola's previous #ShareACoke Campaign: #ShareJusticeNotCoke
#ShareTheSound
On the Hashtag page of the campaign itself, celebrities like Avicii have supported the cause by posting the video and asking people to share. However, a total of 5 posts have been made. It does not appear that this campaign has gained enough grounswell.
Other than this post, there is no other words about the campaign on Twitter. It doesn't appear that much effort has been put to push this campaign.
Website
YouTube
On their main page, Coca-Cola still has the 2012 Fifa World Cup video as their showcase. This video was posted in April! Infact, the main #ShareTheSound video itself has not been posted on YouTube by Coca-Cola! It was posted by Omaze, a channel that shares various stories. Coca-Cola shared their posting on FB. I am very confused by this decision. It seems unprofessional and frankly, not very smart.
Although, there is no sign of the campaign on YouTube, what I found interesting is that their dashboard is currently filled with Coke related videos from all over the world. Although, this is exciting, it is not relevant to everybody. When I go onto Coke's Youtube space, I want to see what is relevant to me or at least in the language I speak. As I mentioned in Part 1, Coca-Cola struggles with identity on Social Media.
These are the comments on the campaigned video shared by Omaze. Surprisingly, no comments are about Coca-Cola. Once again, there seems to be a disconnect between the brand and the cause.
There is no post about #ShareTheSound on instagram, however, Coke continues to post engaging, funny, and more personal photos on this platform than others. The personal feel that is lacking on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube is made up for a little bit here. However, the company still has the lowest number of followers on Instagram compared to any other Social Media platform at 1,2069.
Analytics
We have seen that Coca-Cola has been lackluster in promoting this campaign. How do you think it has affected the company in terms of their trend? Let's find out!
The graphs below show the trend that Pepsi (Yellow), Coke (Blue), and Coca-Cola (Red) had over the month. There has not been a significant change in trend around the time of the campaign. The slight rise in November may be a result of the Holidays. However, there have not been any campaigns on Social Media for the Holidays as of yet.
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| Graph From Google Trends |
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| Graph From Google Trends |
This week, the passion has gone up to 13%. However, it appears that the credit goes to Minha Parada, a Brazilian celebrity who recently did a coke ad. This is apparent from the Top Hashtags section. "Share The Sound" is at the bottom of the list with very little mention.
When looking up "Share The Sound," Social Mention shows a lot of mention and with high passion. However, the mentions are not related to Coca-Cola as seen on the right.
The most interesting results are seen on Ice Rocket, where I looked at the trend in Blogs. The key words "Pepsi," "Coke," and "Coca-Cola" all peaked on Oct 15th. Upon research, I learnt that this is the day the Coca-Cola announced, through a press release on their website, a Diet Coke advertisement with Taylor Swift! In most of the blogs written about this event, groundswell has commented on Pepsi as well! This is an example of groundswell controlling a brand. It is a norm to put Pepsi against Coke and Coke against Pepsi.
This is a comment on a Huffington Post Blog on this commercial
Where are they going wrong?
For a brand as big as Coca-Cola, their activity on Social Media is disappointing.
- The multiculturalism of the company is a plus for the company; however, on Social Media, they lack cohesiveness.
- They are not posting as often as they could.
- Negativity is ignored.
- They are not building a relationship with the Groundswell. They are listening but they are not having a conversation.
- They are too dependent on their established popularity.
- It feels as though, customers are hungry to have a conversation with the brand (seen in the comments) but Coke is not there.
- #ShareTheSound- Coke has not put in enough effort. The campaign is lack luster.
Recommendations
- Multiculturalism: Youtube & Twitter have separate pages for different countries.
- More of the kind of things posted on Instagram, need to be posted on FB and Twitter as well.
- More reality based videos instead of advertisements.
- Share The Sound: Ask followers to send videos of their babies funny/cute cries or laughs/babies with Coca-Cola on Instagram. If they post this request on FB, more people will follow them on Instagram. Customers love their Coke brand, I think Coke can grasp a lot of their attention.
- Need to have conversations with their customers. If the countries are separated on Twitter & Youtube, this will be more feasible.
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