Hey, That’s My Coke! No Really Dude, It Has My Name On It.

July 21, 2014 | Blog | By Lightbox

It’s late afternoon on a hot summer day, you’re not only dying of thirst but also suffering from a post lunch slump. Knowing full well that you have a nicely chilled caffeinated beverage waiting to quench said thirst and revive you from that food coma, you head to the fridge, only to discover your coworker/sibling/roommate has swiped your liquid gold. IF ONLY YOU’D PUT YOUR NAME ON IT…UUUUUGGGGGHHHH!!!

Fear not, the Coca-Cola Company has you covered with their new “Share a Coke” campaign. Ok, so maybe workplace fridge foraging isn’t why Coke decided to replace the logo on some of its 20-ounce bottles with 250 of the most popular names among teens and millennials, but it’s certainly been helpful in my office.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the “Share a Coke” program was first introduced in Australia in 2012 and has since been rolled out to more than 50 countries. The campaign launched in the U.S. last month and the personalized bottles will remain on store shelves through August. To promote the program, Coke is running a nine-week ad campaign that features new TV commercials, cinema ads, social and digital engagement, digital billboards and experiential activations across the country.

The Adspace Digital Mall Network is part of the Share a Coke media mix. Here’s a look at the ad that has been running on our in-mall network of Smart Screens since the beginning of July:

In addition to all of the popular names on 20-ounce bottles, some of the larger more sharable bottles have words like “family” or “friends” on them, and their smaller 12-ounce counterparts feature nicknames like Bestie, Buddy and Wingman.

Did your Gen X parents get caught up in the alt-naming trend of the early 2000s (I’m talking to you Apple, Ever and Jagger)! Not to worry, customers with less-common names are able to get a mini-can customized with their name at one of the 500 traveling kiosks that Coke has set up around the country this summer. In addition, anyone can go online to ShareACoke.com to personalize a virtual bottle and share it with the hashtag #shareacoke. Tapping into the current social media craze as well as the traditional socialization of hanging out and enjoying a Coke, the Share a Coke campaign effectively plays with the double entendre of what it means to share these days. And share we shall! So far more than 350,000 virtual bottles of Coke have been shared on the Share A Coke website.

So next time you go to the store, be sure to pick up a bottle with your name on it, but keep your paws off the one that says Amanda.