This year, Coca-Cola gave Santa Claus a break; instead, you can see their “Real Magic” campaign around town, and many of us recognize their holiday campaigns. We took the opportunity to ask Victoria Adolfsson, Coca-Cola’s Brand Manager, about why they work with outdoor advertising and their latest campaign.
What is the main reason you choose outdoor advertising as a marketing channel?
Outdoor can be considered one of the last remaining strong reach media. A unique advantage is that outdoor advertising is a natural part of the urban environment; it’s hard to ignore, yet it’s not intrusive. The channel easily reaches a broad audience with high frequency. We also often find that the otherwise difficult-to-reach group of young people tends to both observe and take action from our outdoor campaigns. The outdoor medium is also unique in that it allows us to combine both motion and analog content, offering high flexibility.
What is the main reason you choose JCDecaux as a supplier?
Our media choices are based on strong collaboration with our media agency Carat, and we fully trust their expertise and recommendations. We often choose a combination of several suppliers because they complement each other well. With JCDecaux’s spaces, we achieve strong presence in the city centers of the largest cities, with valuable premium placements where traffic flows are high. Another strength of JCDecaux is their agility in discussions, as well as their effective series that allow us to reach consumers near the point of purchase efficiently, which is an important target group for us.
What are your expectations for the Outdoor channel and JCDecaux?
Our expectations are for our booked campaigns to deliver as planned. If they don’t for some reason, we expect quick action and proactive solutions.
You conduct both brand-building and sales-driving campaigns outdoors. Please elaborate on how you perceive the outdoor channel’s effectiveness for different strategies.
Using outdoor in the media mix creates signals of market leadership. The strength of outdoor advertising is that there are formats for all types of messages. When building a brand, one can choose larger formats that create impact, while smaller formats fit well for tactical promotion communication that drives “on the go” consumption.
What is most important when working with your ad agency to develop your outdoor campaign’s design?
Often, we work with globally developed material. But when we have the opportunity to create our own communication, we discuss elements like the size and placement of the logo, as well as the number of designs, based on the campaign’s budget and geographic scope. We also consider various placements to tailor the message according to where we meet our intended audience.
What correlations do you see between outdoor campaigns and results?
We find that when our messages are too complex, observation decreases, which in turn results in negative consequences such as lower likeability and missed actions (sales).
This year, you’re rolling out the new communication concept Real Magic. Can you tell us more about it?
Real Magic is our new global brand philosophy, the first since 2016, and it’s based on Coca-Cola’s ability to unite and uplift people every day. Real Magic celebrates the everyday magic that exists and arises when people come together. At the same time, it captures the very essence of Coca-Cola’s unique and magical taste. With the new platform, we’re introducing an evolved logo that symbolizes a warm hug. We believe the world needs magic now more than ever.
What advice would you give to a client planning their first outdoor campaign?
Keep it simple! This is a fast channel where we want receivers to understand the message and know who the sender is in just a few seconds. Always test your creative concepts. A simple tip is to hold a matchbox at arm’s length to get a good sense of how the viewer will perceive your message.
What do you think is best about outdoor advertising?
There’s something truly special about seeing one of our campaigns come to life in outdoor advertising; it’s a thrilling feeling that I never tire of. Often, it’s the starting point of a broad campaign we’ve worked on for a long time, so it makes me happy, proud, and very curious to see how our consumers respond.
How will you celebrate Christmas?
I will travel home to the world’s best city, Gothenburg, and celebrate Christmas with family and friends. It’ll be a classic holiday celebration with Christmas food and Donald Duck!
Interested in learning more about outdoor advertising? Contact our sales department for more information.