Melanie
Welcome to the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast for all decision makers and action takers. Take it away, Esther.
Esther
And welcome back to another episode of the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. Today, we're talking about Coca-Cola and their marketing scheme in 2025. Now, this isn't the first time Coca-Cola have done this, and it's been done different times throughout the world. So we're talking about finding your name on their products. So have you seen any of these, Melanie? Have you been in the shops recently and seen the names?
Melanie
I have seen them. I don't seek them, but I have seen them. My kids They don't really drink as much fizzy pop as they used to. It's not because I stopped them. It's just they just don't get a chance to get to it very often.
Esther
Yeah. No, well, I love Coca-Cola. I was always what we call a fat Coke drinker. So that's the pure, unadulterated, none of this diet Coke stuff. But I recently converted to Zero Coke, Zero. Now, when I'm visiting family in Mexico, it is Coke, like normal Coca-Cola, liquid Coke, as they like to call it in Mexico. We'll not go into that one. But my problem with my name, Esther, is that it never shows up in any of these campaigns. It never even shows up. You know, there's other things that you see on social media sometimes where, people with these names will have great success in whatever year. You're like, my name is never on the list. It's not even on the list of people that will have bad luck. It's never on any list. Nobody ever thinks to add or include Esther in a list. But my kids have more normal names. When I say normal, my youngest is called Owen, and we live on the island of Ireland. And on the island of Ireland, there are three ways to spell Owen. He spells it the English way, but there are two Irish ways of spelling it.
So the other day, we were actually in the Republic of Ireland and I stopped in a shop. I needed a sugar fix. I needed to be able to drive the two hours home. And I went to the Coca-Cola in the fridge and I found his name in Irish. Now, if you're watching the video, you will see it as E-O-I-N. And I really hope it's not backwards because at the minute it's looking backwards to me. But I sought it out. I looked for it. There was a couple of other ones that were at the front that I could see more clearly. There was a friend of mine, her name's Rebecca, and she had one at the very front. And I thought, I could send her a pic thinking of you, that thing. And that's what Coca-Cola has done with this campaign. Now, there's other things that I'm a real avid drinker of Coca-Cola. And they have cans that are like a share box. And they've got all... It's got mate, they've got Buddy, they've got Pal, They've got Fella, they've got Friend, Sis, all the more generic names in the can box. So the other one that I got was Fella.
Now, my kids have gone through my share box. They're not supposed to drink Coca-Cola. I don't like them. That's such a hypocrite. I don't like them drinking Coca-Cola. It's bad for them. I'm long past that. They're athletic. I'm not. But I don't like... Okay. Truth time. I don't like sharing. So they have gone through my cans and looked for the ones that they like. So they've looked for Pal, Mate, Bro, because it appeals to them. And that's what Coca-Cola has done so well with this campaign. And they've done it. It's not the first time they did it about 10 years ago, I want to say. And people were going crazy and looking for their names and sending pictures to their friends. And it's ingenious. I mean, it doesn't take that much extra thought or ink or change of design to add these details in, but it makes people talk about your product like we are today.
Melanie
Well, one thing I thought I'd do a little bit of research in this particular campaign, and this is the world's longest running marketing campaign. It was launched in 2012, originally. There is over a thousand popular first names, nicknames, terms of endearment, and popular phrases like BFF, soulmate, and better half. Obviously, a lot of those would be in the share boxes you were talking about. They have a hashtag ShareACoke. I can't imagine anybody, aside from the obvious, that could compete on the same level and do a campaign similar to it without any real success. But did you know that was the longest marketing campaign in the world?
Esther
No, I didn't because, well, I'd seen it in other countries. I'd seen it. So in 2012, we were still living in Mexico and I saw it there.
Melanie
Because it's a multinational marketing campaign.
Esther
So it doesn't happen at the same time in each country. And different countries will have different lists of names, obviously. There's Maria and Jose and things like that in Spanish-speaking countries that we don't really have those names so much here. Although I did see some in a shop the other day in Northern Ireland, they must have imported theirs from Spain. That's all I could think of. But like I said, in Northern Ireland, I could have probably found his name Owen, spelt O-W-E-N. I may have also found it spelt E-O-G-H-A-N, which is also an option for spelling Owen.
Melanie
I'm just forgotten about that one.
Esther
But I will never find my own. And like I said, I drink Coca-Cola anyway, but I wouldn't have openly shared about this. It's not something that-.
Melanie
Or shared it.
Esther
Well, you don't need, no I don't share it. I don't share. You know this about me. But I wouldn't have felt the need to tell people that I drink Coca-Cola unless I had found my son's name. And I think he thinks it's cool. He's like, oh, it's my bottle. Like, well, actually, it's mine. You need it for research purposes. But having the bottles or finding your friend's name and taking a pic and go, hey, I'm having a drink with you. That is genius, because then other people will go, hey, I want my name on it. And they'll start communicating with Coca-Cola, going, why is my name never on it? And that gives them the user generated content and the information and things to change the name list the next time they bring it out in that particular country. Because like I said, it's not ongoing all the time. It would get boring if it was. I think it's the fact that they do change up the names and they change up the times that they have it out. If it had, like you said, it's been ongoing since 2012, but if it had been constantly in our shops in the UK, Ireland, et for the last 13 odd years, I think it would just be...
Melanie
It's the other name. He stopped seeing it. We've said this before. If you keep doing the same thing all the time, people stop seeing it. The relevance is lost. People become complacent. And you hit the nail on the head there. It's all down to user-generated content. And a group of people getting together at the weekend, maybe watching a match or something like that, and it's pal, mate, and BFF and everything else. So I can imagine that would be a really good way to promote the brand as well. But do you think our listeners could do anything similar with their own products or services that would help them use something similar for their own marketing?
Esther
Absolutely. Absolutely. I think there's... You look at other brands, big brands like Pandora, that name their bracelets or they name their charms. So if you had, which one I'm going to? Candles. If you had candles, then you could have the name or you could have... Obviously, there's ones that say happy birthday or friend and things like that. But you could be more specific and run a competition and say, what's the most popular girls name in the area? Vote here of what name you would like. You're getting information, you're getting You're doing market research without having to spend a lot of money on collating all the information and gathering all the information. And again, people will go, hey, I want my name on a candle. Can you do a personalized one for me? Or a bracelet or, can you name this jewelry link after me? Can you name this ring after me? And you end up wearing the Julia ring or you'll end up wearing the, the Melanie watch and things like that. So yeah, I think a lot of businesses could do it. Our businesses don't think they could unless we start naming websites after. This design is the Rebecca and this other design is the Elaine. Why would you know?
Melanie
What would it do with mine? Because it's one thing to have products which you have mentioned, all of them are products, but I'm a service, so how could we do it?
Esther
Yeah, same. I don't think services unless you would end up naming it as the Melanie approach or the Mari Smith approach. But then you're encroaching on a trademark if people have those names.
Melanie
Especially Mari Smith.
Esther
We love you, Mari. But it is one of those things that for service-based businesses, it is more difficult. But I don't think you need to name your services to be able to stand out.
Melanie
Okay, so we've agreed that the way Coca-Cola made it, made it identifiable, easy to share and more personal. So maybe we can look at how we can do something similar with our own products or services. It doesn't have to be quite a thousand names and special phrases, but it could be something a little more niche, a bit more personal. So get your thinking caps on and start thinking, how are you can make it a bit more personal? As you can see, they don't use any photos. They don't use people in any of them. It's just names. It can make you think, okay, so that bottle is Esther, because I found a bottle with Esther on it, I bet. It's not me.
Esther
If you do, send me a picture.
Melanie
But it's not me. I'm going to tag or share that image to Esther. It's exactly the same when you're trying to reach your own customer avatars and your audio avatars, and you're not actually speaking to them directly, but it's making people think, I know who this might be of interest to. So even when you're not actually hitting your mark, somebody will know somebody who is close to it, if not the exact customer avatar you're looking for. And the easier you make that information to share by share buttons, by ads, whatever, then the better it is for you to get promotion So what was your last final words on this, Esther?
Esther
Well, I was just before we end, I was just going to add in that I think it's interesting that Coca-Cola is still using a hashtag because we've talked recently about the demise of hashtags.
Melanie
Yes.
Esther
But they must still work because otherwise large companies wouldn't be using #ShareACoke or #hashtag. So if they're still working for the big companies, they can still work for the small companies.
Melanie
Agreed.
Esther
And using Use that to your advantage to, even as a service business, get people to share what they've learnt from you with hashtag and whatever hashtag you decide to use for your business.
Melanie
I don't think hashtags are completely dead. I think it's a great campaign name, gets people behind the brand because it's actually saying the brand name and the campaign use as well, which is sharing a Coke.
Esther
Yeah.
Melanie
Okay, well, that's all the time we have for for this week. We hope we've got your minds ticking over. And if you've got any ideas on how you can use the ShareACoke campaign to your business, we'd love to hear from you. And if it's innovative and clever enough, we'll bring you on the podcast. Speak to you soon. Bye for now.
Esther
Bye-bye.
Do you think there's Melanies? On those list of a thousand names, is there a Melanie?
Melanie
There is. I've actually bought a Melanie before. It was very confronting.
Esther
Did you feel like you were drinking yourself?
Eew. This conversation.
