King Of Cola Strives To Become The King Of Content
At the IAB MIXX Conference last week, Jonathan Mildenhall, Coca-Cola’s Vice President of Global Advertising Strategy and Content Excellence, shared the company’s vision for how it will compete in a socially engaged future: Content 2020.
It’s worth pointing out that Coca-Cola has been ranked the number one global brand for the last ten years by Interbrand, a leading worldwide branding agency. (The company won the top spot again in the just released 2011 rankings.) So from a marketing perspective, when Coke says something, just about every marketer listens.
From Creative Excellence to Content Excellence
Mildenhall describes a transition for Coca-Cola from “creative excellence” to “content excellence.” He says the purpose of content excellence is to “create ideas so contagious they cannot be controlled.” The ideas are a form of “liquid” and are “linked” to the company’s business objectives, so the underlying marketing platform is called Liquid Linked. Mildenhall explains that Coca-Cola will strive to tell stories that will “provoke conversations,” and as a result, the company’s brands will “earn a disproportionate share of popular culture.”
A key point of Content 2020 is the reality that stories are not generated solely by Coke’s brand marketers. In fact, says Mildenhall, consumer stories outnumber stories created by Coca-Cola on most of the company’s brands. When this factor is combined with the “on demand culture,” in which consumers are completely connected and can “turn their demands on 24 hours a day,” it presents an opportunity to create ideas that are fully integrated with technology.
Moving to Dynamic Storytelling
With this in mind, says Mildenhall, one-way storytelling isn’t sufficient; instead, marketers must move to “dynamic storytelling.” Dynamic storytelling has the challenge of maintaining a unified and coordinated brand experience while dispersing content across multiple channels of conversation. You can see how this begins to open up a whole new world to marketers, one that depends on social engagement across every available channel.
According to Mildenhall, “storytelling is at the heart of all families, communities, and cultures” and that’s why Coca-Cola leverages storytelling throughout its marketing platform. Mildenhall says “our brand stories must show commitment to making the world a better place.” Each story must add value and significance to people’s lives.
Looking to the Data
Going hand-in-hand with storytelling is the collection of data which, says Mildenhall, “will become the new soil in which our ideas will grow.” Data, of course, has the potential to offer in-depth insights about customers, and that data can be used to create even more effective stories that provoke reactions from customers. Mildenhall sees online conversations with consumers as a key way to collect data. He believes Coca-Cola must be active in conversing with consumers, not just listening. Customer collaboration plays a huge role in the Coca-Cola marketing strategy.
70/20/10: A Content Creation Formula
Jonathan Mildenhall thinks Coca-Cola must create “the world’s most engaging content.” He cites an interesting formula for content creation: “70/20/10.” According to Mildenhall, 70 percent of the content Coca-Cola creates should be low-risk; it’s the “bread and butter” content that takes less time to create, while 20 percent of the content should innovate off what works. The remaining 10 percent of the content is high-risk—brand new ideas that will be tomorrow’s 20 percent or 70 percent.
Mildenhall comes to the conclusion that “in a liquid world we need multiple content.” He says Coca-Cola has to produce “a lot more stuff” without spending a lot more money. He also realizes that maximum flexibility is required in a liquid world, because some content needs won’t be known until a product is in market.
Coca-Cola’s Content 2020 may be a framework that only the largest, most sophisticated marketers can apply in its entirety, but the underlying principles are worth exploring for potential execution by other online marketers of more modest means. Not surprisingly, the world’s leading brand sees a future in which content is squarely in the driver’s seat.
If you’re interested in more specific details about Content 2020, take a look at Jonathan Mildenhall’s two-part, animated video presentation:
