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Your name, on a bottle

  • Coca-Cola
  • Australia first
  • 2011
  • 2 min
  • Made for Instagram

It began in Australia, then expanded to 80+ countries.

A Coca-Cola bottle with a Share a Coke with Michael label on a shop shelf
Photo: Mikey from Wythenshawe, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
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  1. A Coca-Cola case study. Your name, on a bottle. It started in Australia in 2011, then went to 80+ countries.
  2. The setup: summer 2011, Australia. Coke swapped its logo for the 150 most popular first names in the country, and asked people to share a Coke with them.
  3. The product change: same drink, new label. Nothing in the bottle changed. A bottle became a message you could hand to someone.
  4. Why people stopped. Looking for your own name is hard to resist. Names that weren't on the shelf could be printed at kiosks in Westfield malls. 378,000 were.
  5. The receipts. +7% young adult consumption. 250M+ named bottles and cans sold that summer, in a country of under 23 million. +870% traffic to Coke's Facebook page. Sources: Ogilvy Sydney, The Coca-Cola Company.
  6. Copy this. Personalise the thing people already hold. Give people a way to get what's missing. The kiosks did that. Put sharing in the object, not just the ad.
  7. That's it. Still my favourite example. Eighty-plus countries later, it's the one I think of when someone says personalisation.

tan.ai Same drink, new label. It started in Australia in 2011. Swipe →

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Why I picked it: No change to the product, only to the packaging, much like a feature flag on a label.

What I'd test: 150 names leave many people out. How do you serve the long tail?

Where I use this: Onboarding. Show the person's own data on the first screen.

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My notes (3)
  • Why I picked it: No change to the product, only to the packaging, much like a feature flag on a label.
  • What I'd test: 150 names leave many people out. How do you serve the long tail?
  • Where I use this: Onboarding. Show the person's own data on the first screen.

All seven slides

Written for Instagram. Seven slides, one idea.

Photos: Mikey from Wythenshawe and Mike Mozart (CC BY 2.0), Wikimedia Commons. Numbers: Ogilvy Sydney and The Coca-Cola Company.

The receipt

A label, itemised.

RECEIPT · SHARE A COKE

NAMES ON BOTTLES
150
YOUNG ADULT CONSUMPTION
+7%
NAMED PACKS SOLD
250M+
FACEBOOK TRAFFIC
+870%
COUNTRIES REACHED LATER
80+
CHANGES TO THE DRINK
0

SOURCE: OGILVY, COCA-COLA

RECEIPT · SHARE A COKE SOURCE: OGILVY, COCA-COLA TAPto print

RECEIPT · SHARE A COKE

NAMES ON BOTTLES
150
YOUNG ADULT CONSUMPTION
+7%
NAMED PACKS SOLD
250M+
FACEBOOK TRAFFIC
+870%
COUNTRIES REACHED LATER
80+
CHANGES TO THE DRINK
0

SOURCE: OGILVY, COCA-COLA

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