The media landscape today bears little resemblance to the media landscape five years ago, let alone 50 years ago. If that statement comes as a revelation to you, you really haven’t been paying attention.
But there’s a big difference between marketing pundits pounding the drum, and major brand marketers changing they way they connect with consumers. And when it comes to major brands, they don’t come much more major thanThe Coca-Cola Company. The gang at Coca-Cola have been innovating foryears, learning lessons long before most other mass marketers have wrapped their heads around the shifts happening in media and culture. But their latest leap seems more dramatic. More comprehensive. No wonder. They have big, audacious goals to reach — double sales of Coca-Cola products — so they need a big, audacious way to get there.
Their solution? Something Coke’s VP of Global Advertising Strategy & Creative Excellence, Jonathan Mildenhall, calls Content 2020. Content 2020 is shorthand for a comprehensive, enterprise-wide shift from static one-way storytelling through traditional advertising messages replicated over and over and over across dominant mass media platforms; toward the creation of “contagious” two-way storytelling that is both “liquid” and “linked”.
To get there, Coke is changing everything — from how they construct each strategic brief and how they gather and incorporate data; to when, where and how they partner with consumers, content creators and technology companies. And for a brand that built it’s brand on traditional advertising, it is notable that there is scarcely a mention of media partnerships. Why fall between the cracks in the content when you have the breadth, distribution, and (now) the strategy to actually become the content people want to consume?
I could take pages to explain all of this, and still not do it justice. Lucky for me and even luckier for you, Coke has taken to YouTube (not so surprising, is it?) to reveal not only a crystal clear vision but also their company-wide plan for turning that vision into action. The result? A two-part, 18-minute animated playbook chock full of provocative ideas that will cause any consumer marketer to consider how she too can create greater brand relevance and emotional resonance through powerful, two-way transmedia storytelling; and should drive any media industry executive to think about how he can rethink and rearrange his array of digital and traditional assets to provide post-digital consumers with experiences they’ll crave — and post-digital marketers like Coca-Cola with more effective points of connection. Watch…
