Rewarding Redemption
AWARD CATEGORY Internet-based Loyalty
CAMPAIGN My Coke Rewards 2.0
AGENCY Studiocom
CLIENT Coca-Cola Co.
My Coke Rewards has established a benchmark for all marketers considering an online loyalty program. But Coca-Cola Co. hasn’t rested on its laurels.
In April 2007, Studiocom rolled out an enhanced MyCokeRewards.com that now covers all 13 client brands, as opposed to the first version, which debuted in 2006 and allowed consumer redemption only for franchise products: Coke, Diet Coke and Coke Zero.
The 2.0 platform offers flash technology, a dramatic improvement over static html. More important, each member’s experience is customized, based on up to 400 pieces of information captured about each member. That data is crunched, then spit back out in highly individualized messaging, reward recommendations, partner information and promotions.
It is also the first time that the site is available entirely in both English and Spanish. It offers enhanced browse and search functionality, and instant redemption for digital rewards, such as rich media files, e-cards, screen savers or downloads.
“The Web site is the core and the soul of the whole program,” says Blakely Ginn, client partner at Studiocom.
To participate, consumers register at the site and then collect codes from the billions of bottle caps and packaging circulating through the nation. Once entered online, accumulated rewards can be redeemed for everything from magazine subscriptions to $3,500 gift cards to cruises.
Studiocom also reworked the site to reflect each brand’s distinctive personality, in some instances developing microsites for a specific brand that include interactive games, sweepstakes and other experiences.
Registration continues to grow at more than 12 new registered users per minute, and 155 site visits per minute with members averaging over nine-minute visits. Close to 6 million rewards have been redeemed by the more than 9 million members since the site first launched in 2006.
My Coke Rewards research has found that members are two times more likely to participate in sweepstakes than non-members. And the members who most frequently log on are 10 times more likely to enter sweeps.
Coke was surprised by how the program has grown through word-of-mouth, says Michael La Kier, the brand director for My Coke Rewards.
Over the past two months, one third of all members told an average 3.7 people about the company’s brands and the My Coke Rewards program. And it’s anticipated that 41% will become evangelists for it within the next eight weeks.
“We know that people are getting engaged with the program and excited enough to tell others,” he says. “It’s moving from, ‘hey I like you’ to ‘I’m an advocate for your brand.’”
— Patricia Odell
IDEA TO STEAL
BORN IDENTITY
Diet Coke has a strong tie to the Oscars, thus the company pitched Oscar messaging to Diet Coke lovers on My Coke Rewards. However, it discovered that there are also many Diet Coke drinkers more interested in sports than red carpet walkers. Version 2.0 plays up those differences with customized messaging. “If we market to them online and in store just with one single message they may zone out and not pay attention to us,” La Kier says.
