Which is the Best Social Network Platform? “Benditos Bares"

In the last month, I’ve followed the latest Coca Cola Iberia communication campaign called "Benditos Bares". The firm contrives the campaign to connect meaningfully with the Spanish market and boost bars economic activity, why’s that? Because for Spaniards bars are a cultural symbol, it’s part of their lifestyle and of their identity. This cultural linkage is so strong that in towns and villages the only place to gather and socialize with people it’s at the bar. So, imagine the relevance of this place for Spaniards!

An investigation developed by Quota Research concluded that Spanish people frequently visit bars, 45% do it during the weekend and 37% between 2-3 times per week. Further research from Coca Cola aroused than 84% of the population associate bars with moments of happiness and joy and 44% of the sample said that they met in a bar their best friend or couple!

These findings are fully aligned with Coca Cola’s strategy based on inspiring moments of optimism and happiness. A study organized by the brand highlights the fact that the economic downswing has caused the closure of more than 50.000 venues. Because of this and many other factors such as the continued weak consumer confidence and aggressive competitive pricing Coca Cola Iberia decreased it sales in 1%(2012). In lieu of the accelerated growth lived during the period of 2009 till 2011. Therefore, the negative economic outlook is an important reason behind launching such a vast marketing initiative. 

The brand availed all this to make use of it for the “Benditos Bares” campaign. The budget for the marketing stunt is greater than €10 million ($13M; £9M) and it aims to exhort consumers to visit bars with friends, bolster their sense of belonging and foster consumption. The summer campaign (May-Sept) has been divided in two phases, the awareness stage and the call to action one. The former communicates with consumers in an emotional level exalting bars’ relevancy as a social centre. Also, it will be rolled out during the entire summer. The latter conceived San Bar-Tolo’s Day (29^th June), were every Spaniard had to stop with friends at a bar to have at least a Coke.

1st Ads - "Bars as social centre"

  2nd Ads - "Let's support our bars!"

 

The soft drinks company is carrying out an Integral Marketing Campaign mingling above the line and below the line communication channels such as TV, radio, billboards in metro stations, San Bar-Tolo’s Day sales promotions (e.g. every Coke in a bar was sold for €1 instead of the average price of €2 and as a reward participants received a red bow tie and free tapas). Moreover, social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Youtube are playing a major role in this campaign. 

During SanBar-Tolo’s Day, Coca Cola encouraged people to share through the hashtag #BenditosBares their cheerful moments spent with friends in a bar. To keep up going the online conversation Coca Cola used key influencers to chatter about the event such as Nena Daconte, David Bustamante, Sevilla Football Club, Hugo Pierna and many other public figures. 

Hitherto we don’t have enough information yet to evaluate the overall performance of the campaign. But, consumers’ engagement through Social Media during the day of the event can give us a good hint of how successful the campaign was it. Coca Cola’s hashtag #BenditosBares cast off an engagement 6.3*¹ ratio. To put it in context, I compare it with the latest Redbull’s event hashtag #Xfighters which throw off a 5.7 ratio. It should be highlighted that social media interaction with both events was massive! But it surprised me that RedBull got twice as much hashtags than Coca Cola. But on the other hand, Coca Cola received more visual content and retweets than RedBull. This shows that the depth and loyalty of Coca Cola’s consumers is much higher. 

From my point of view Coca Cola once again develop a brilliant campaign. Why? Because the brand remains aligned with its business strategy, it was locally relevant and finally but not less important it conveyed a very emotional message that will help them to build stronger bounds with its customers and connect deeper with its consumers.

*¹ Engagement ratio formula: 

E.R= (# of hashtags + # tweets + # retweets + # favourites + # Multimedia content) / #Followers