Coca-cola Takes over Airlines in Latest Guerrilla Campaign

March 11, 2013 by Xath Cruz - 6 comments

The objective of the campaign is pretty straightforward. Coke wants to prove that Coke Zero doesn’t taste any different from their regular Coca Cola. If it does have a difference, it’s so small that it’s hardly noticeable.

To an average consumer, it’s safe to say that the message was delivered. Coke was able to prove, Zero and regular Coke taste almost the same.

For marketers, however, there are several things that make this guerrilla stunt worthy of a double high five.

1. Classic taste test… revisited

There really is nothing new to what they did. In fact, it’s one of the oldest and most classic marketing tactics – taste test. They asked everyone who would rather have regular Coke. Without the customer knowing, they put Zero instead of regular Coke. For better impact, they actually put a Coke Zero can inside the regular Coke can.

After customers already almost finished their drink, it was revealed to them that they were actually drinking Coke Zero. The only thing that changed is the venue. Instead of doing it in markets, malls and streets, Coke did it inside a plane. Amazing how a venue can make something look more sophisticated, huh?

2. It’s never the size of the audience

One of the most common requirements of clients when doing guerrilla marketing efforts is the size of the direct audience. This stunt only had several hundreds of people in the plane but the views on YouTube is already up to 215,950 and that’s without English subtitles.

3. Consistent with Coke’s Happiness campaign

Even with a seemingly remote message from the “happiness” campaign, the effort was still consistent with the overall campaign. They distributed free Coke to everyone who wants to have one. By the time everyone was seated, literally every single passenger had a Coke with them.

This is one guerrilla marketing campaign that both marketers and client should look at. Marketers should realize that even classic tactics still work if used under the right circumstances. On the other hand, client should realize that a campaign’s impact is not measured on the size of the direct audience. It goes farther and deeper than that.