Coca-Cola Counts on Fans to Spread the Love

Coca-Cola will be looking to its fans to be a key part of its marketing strategy.

The beverage brand, building off the popularity of its “Longest Celebration” campaign for the World Cup games in South Africa in 2009, also hopes to score another marketing win with its plans for the London 2012 Summer Olympics.

“We must embrace the creativity of consumers all around the world,” said Jonathan Mildenhall, VP, global advertising strategy and content excellence at Coca-Cola, in an interview with ClickZ News. The discussion took place at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Mixx conference during Advertising Week in New York.

Hear Mildenhall discuss five facets of “dynamic storytelling” that Coca-Cola is embracing as well as the brand’s plans for the Summer Olympics in London.

While Mildenhall could not disclose the size of Coca-Cola’s digital marketing budget, he said the company emphasizes multi-channel, social marketing approaches. “Most of my production dollars are now planned for having an interactive or shareable potential,” he said. For instance, production for out-of-home advertising included video profiles of five athletes, including American hurdler David Oliver. “We’re going to use that film content on their social media sites. We’re confident we can generate huge conversations