Coca-Cola Tries the CGM Side of Life

The Coca-Cola Company has morphed its longtime corporate Web site at Coca-Cola.com into an international brand portal with user-generated content in mind.

The new site, designed by AKQA, marks the first global integration of the company’s digital presence. It’s available in 26 countries and six languages, and will be promoted online and offline by brand managers in those regions. It will eventually be expanded to other countries, a spokesperson said.

The site launch is part of the company’s global “Coke Side of Life” campaign. A series of monthly challenges will encourage people around the world to create videos in response to a theme. The first challenge on the site, “The Essence of You,” is drawn from Wieden + Kennedy’s advertising for the client. “If you could bottle the essence of you and share it with the world, what story would you tell?” asks the site.

“Throughout Coke’s history, we have seen people use the brand, its icons and heritage as a creative source,” said Marc Mathieu, SVP for global core brands, in a statement. “In the ’60s, it was Andy Warhol, today it’s people all over the world on the Internet developing their own interpretations of the brand. We believe the independent creative process is a vital part of our heritage. With this site we want to give a further opportunity for these imaginative minds to be part of our creative process.”

Site visitors will be able to vote on each other’s work, and a winner of each challenge will get video equipment and editing software worth around $5,000, wherever they may be in the 26 countries.

According to a spokesperson, “We’re bringing a global creative community together. It’s not just the U.S. creative teenagers uploading their videos. It’s going to be everyone around the world, and you’re going to see everybody’s [stuff].”

The move probably made sense, judging from the available search data. The most popular search term driving traffic to Coca-Cola.com website was “Coca Cola,” accounting for 19.60 percent of all queries delivering people to that domain.

Coca-Cola originally handed AKQA Web design responsibilities last fall.

The company has migrated its corporate Web site to www.thecoca-colacompany.com.