#tarapalmer

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A bit of celebrity sparkle - Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and Sinitta were recording just up the road last week and popped in for a cuddle with one of our rescue dogs - little staffie Monkey. 

Tara, a big pet-lover, was instantly down to Monkey's level and enjoying his excited welcome. It was difficult to catch a still moment of these two! 

Although not as confident with dogs as Tara, Sinitta was also up for a little fuss and photo. She is pictured here with our Fundraising Manager Rachel.

The ladies are starring together in a new reality TV show, called The Jump, where they will be learning winter sports including the ski jump - hence the cute winter headgear they were both wearing.

Thank you to them both for popping by! 

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Coca-Cola and Social Media

I have been following Coca-Cola on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. I was somewhat surprised at the company’s lack of presence on these mediums. Because of Coca-Cola’s dominance in the market, it makes sense that they would not need to be as in its consumers’ faces. However, as it has dropped due to technology companies, you would think they also have that reason to keep advertising up. But my expectation of presence may be higher than others. I follow some companies that tweet or post several times per day whereas Coca-Cola does this usually once a day or less.

            Coca-Cola is most active on Twitter. They have over 2 million followers. Though they tweet once a day or less, they are constantly responding to followers that tweet at them. They respond in several languages, showing the effort the company puts into relations around the world. The majority of Coke’s tweets are silly and/or uplifting, nothing too heavy or thought provoking. They use popular hashtags as reasons to tweet that day. Of course, Veteran’s day was observed through Twitter and Facebook.

            The Coca-Cola Facebook page has 75 million likes. As Facebook is a much larger network, I would have thought they would be most active here. However, they only had two or three posts in the month of November. Facebook is not the first place people are going to think to catch up on Coca-Cola. Facebook is not a beverage’s go-to place.

I also checked its presence on Pinterest. There had not been activity from their account for 18 weeks. Boards included positive things such as Be Together, Be Active, Be Giving, Be in the Moment, and Keep Discovering. The uplifting focus follows the company’s advertisements throughout the last years, focusing on goodwill and happiness.

I think commercials are Coca-Cola’s main advertising outlet, along with ads in magazines, billboards, and newspapers. Social media is not Coca-Cola’s strong point. This could be an area to tap into more in order to regain their position as number one over the other rising technology companies.

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Coca-Cola

http://adage.com/article/news/maryland-based-foundation-attacks-coca-cola/244847/

  This is an article from Ad Age that explains a counter-movement against Coke saying, “Happiness doesn’t come in a red can. Obesity does.” I think this could be very useful and interesting in my exploration of Coke because it is important to know that backlash against a brand. It will be interesting to see how Coke responds to this effort. The campaign has a very interesting angle, though. While they are going against the consumption of Coca-Cola, they are not against the company as a whole. The campaign disapproves of Coca-Cola’s focus on advertising Coke when they have many other products that are healthier, such as Honest Tea. So the campaign is not completely dissing Coke, they are also trying to promote the company’s other products, ones that are better for the public.

  http://adage.com/article/special-report-ana-annual-meeting-2013/video-coca-cola-s-joe-tripodi-ana-conference/244594/

This is an article from Ad Age that focuses on how Coca-Cola markets and markets to a specific generation. Coca-Cola has realized that it is necessary to market in different way depending on the target group. Joe Tripodi explains that Coke looks to innovation to tap into the millennial generation. This innovation includes constant consumer engagement with details such as packaging, equipment, and cultural leadership. Networking has become an enormous component to partnering with other organizations at the realization that one company does not have all the answers. Strategic partnerships allow the company to “enter the heart and soul of millennials” in order for them to love the Coca-Cola brand more.

http://www.adweek.com/video/coca-cola-security-cameras-coca-cola-landia-142331

This is an ad I could cite, interesting that it has practically nothing to do with Coke itself until the end, which doesn’t mean it has connection with the rest of the footage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/30/business/media/apple-passes-coca-cola-as-most-valuable-brand.html?_r=0

I think it will be important to note that Coca-Cola has finally dropped from the first spot and replaced by Apple and Google. This current event will surely have an impact on the company and its advertising effort. The company will have to figure out how to combat a company of rising value that is not of the same product category. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/01/health/coca-cola-plans-kiosks-with-water-and-internet.html

In an effort to counter the bad press against soda companies in solely pushing obesity and expanding their sugary products into malnourished countries, Coca-Cola plans to build kiosks dispensing water and electricity. Though this has nothing to do with the company’s main product, the sponsorship and brand advertising from building such kiosks will better the perception of the company.

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Coke

I chose Coca-Cola because it is such a large presence in the economy and will have plenty of ad campaigns to choose from. I want to look at how far the company and its advertisements have come. The company has been around since the 1880s, giving it plenty of history to look into. Coca-Cola has generally always been above Pepsi in the marketplace. I would like to look into what has given Coca-Cola this edge, besides its better taste and having been around longer. Because the company has been around for so long, it would be easy to find that Coke ads have progressed, probably starting as product information ads to the many commercials we are used to today. I think many would say Coke uses personalized and lifestyle ads to get consumers to purchase their product. I would like to look at different campaigns and see which have been the most successful and why. It would be interesting to also look into how its ownership of other products plays out in its success and if those products are also used to help endorse the Coke product. Many people I know simply refer to carbonated beverages as a general “Coke,” whether it is even a Coke product or not. This clearly shows the dominance of the Coca-Cola Company and its well known product…Coke.

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This articles describes a new way of informing people they have food in their teeth..as if you couldn't just do that verbally in person. This shows the extent to which technology has gone and the lengths to which companies will go for a little advertising. Instead of just running a commercial about their new toothbrush, they have chosen to implement a whole new system of letting people know about the food between their teeth. 

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The latest from Brilliant Ads (@Brilliant_Ads). The most creative, unique, remarkable and powerful advertisements from around the world. [email protected]. Worldwide

This is an interesting way the sharing of ads has been incorporated into today's obsession with social media. They post several times a day with cool ads that I usually have not seen before. They are generally more out there than the ads we see every day.