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Let’s get fizz-ical

Posted in Advertising, Creative February 6th, 2007 by Branwell Johnson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In our latest analysis in conjunction with YouGov’s BrandIndex we assess the impact of the return of the Diet Coke hunk.

The most-awaited comeback since Rocky occurred last month when the Diet Coke hunk resurfaced after a long absence.

The handsome icon has been resurrected to help Coca-Cola reposition its Diet Coke brand towards women once more, after the company hared off in pursuit of a male audience using a tortoise as its brand icon.

The return of the female-skewed humorous ads – this time under the banner “Create your own Diet Coke moment” – has only marginally managed to lift Diet Coke’s Buzz to 2. The Buzz is a measure of whether people have heard positive or negative things about a brand carried out by YouGov’s BrandIndex.

The Diet Coke campaign launched on 22 January and it could be argued that it is too early to measure any impact but Diet Coke was registering a buzz of 3 in late December. The drink’s Buzz actually fell to zero on 25 January.

Of course, the brand has had a rocky year. Coca-Cola’s plans to increase Diet Coke’s appeal to men with the use of the Tort character and the strapline “For those who love life” were overtaken by the parent company ordering the launch of “bloke coke” Coke Zero. The huge associated marketing spend  for the new variant cranked up on 10 July.

The last burst of Diet Coke activity in July saw the Buzz rise to 6 before the introduction of  Coke Zero rendered the efforts to make men drink Diet Coke redundant and advertising agency Vallance Carruthers Coleman Priest returned to the drawing board.

All Coca-Cola’s efforts went into marketing Coke Zero over the summer so it’s no surprise that Diet Coke’s Buzz bobbed along between 4 and zero throughout September, October and November, even hitting -3 at one point in early December.

In the brand’s favour, its Quality mark has always held strong, reaching as high as 15 in mid-August and ranging from 9 to 13 in January. The campaign also seems to have boosted the Recommend rating, which had fallen as low as 2 just prior to relaunch and registered 10 on January 30.

Diet Coke is also sponsoring new ITV2 show Wag’s Boutique, featuring the wives and girlfriends of footballers. The show launched last Thursday (30 January) and the sponsorship may help with awareness.