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Coca-Cola Marketing Rugby World Cup

Coca-Cola Enterprises to focus marketing plans on ‘personalised, predictive and partnerships’ as gateway to internet-of-things opportunities

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By Jessica Davies, News Editor

January 12, 2015 | 6 min read

Coca Cola Enterprises is to carve a bigger role for intent-based targeting as part of its ongoing plans, which will see it better fuse its online and offline media and prepare for internet-of things (IoT) opportunities.

The drinks giant is positioning its marketing strategy around the three Ps – personalised, predictive and partnerships – which will see it use its data to “join the dots” in its on and offline communications with UK consumers, and test emerging technologies with start-up partners around major events such as the Rugby World Cup, according to Coca Cola Enterprises digital director Simon Miles.

Speaking to The Drum Miles described predictive marketing as a “massive” opportunity for the brand. “We’re starting to think of how we can join the dots on the data we have to predict what they [customers] do,” he added.

The brand began exploring this area last year, alongside partners Tesco and mobile marketing joint venture between O2, Vodafone and EE – Weve – for its World Cup activity. This saw it geo-fence 100 of the top Tesco stores and then serve location-based messages which were contextually relevant to individuals.

“During the week of the first England game we began looking at profiles of various shoppers so we knew which people were thinking about the game and preparing for it, and sent messages to them when they were in the car park [of Tesco stores]. We then ensured our in-store displays matched the messages we pushed out via mobile promoting particular packs when people were 100m away, so as soon as they walked through the door that’s what they saw,” he said.

It ran half a million messages within three days, and saw 19 per cent of people who got the messages go on to make a purchase of the offer in-store as a result. “That’s actually really high - we were expecting three or four per cent, but it shows the opportunities when you can close the gap between someone in the shop, and then at the fixture. The more relevant you can make whatever you want to say, and the more you can put that in the context of where someone is, and what they are doing – that drives your numbers,” he added.

Other kinds of proximity-based targeting have also been trialled with Weve, such as looking at ways to influence lunch-time meal prompts. For this, it teamed up with Upper Crust at London Underground stations to send people timely messages via their mobiles within a two-hour window. “Again the numbers were high for this. It wasn’t perfect but one of the main things we learned was that timing is the most crucial factor. We got different results depending on that. But it’s not just the grocery [outlets] we want to focus on but the high street and train stations too – exploring how it influences purchase choice.”

The brand also kicked off its first iBeacon trials around the World Cup last year, and is looking to develop its use of them as part of its sponsorship of the Rugby World Cup this September. Miles admitted its work here had been “slow to come to fruition” due to the additional permissions it needed for beacon technology, and the fact that not all retailer infrastructures can cater for it yet.

Beacon technology could help glue together on and offline activity to help provide a more streamlined and joined-up approach, according to Miles.

“If you think of the whole path to purchase, we can go right from what people see at home, to their tablet or TV – it can be the final piece in the jigsaw – to really close that gap between home and online, so we will definitely be doing more of that this year,” he said.

Predictive, or intent-based marketing will help bolster its personalised messaging further, and could help it tie in its strategy with internet-of-things (IoT) opportunities, according to Miles.

He said the brand is currently in talks with retailers in the UK, and US tech start-ups with the view to looking at potential partnerships that capitalise on the IoT landscape.

“We’re starting to think of how to use our data to predict what people are going to do next. If we can predict their behaviour and put an offer in front of them at exactly the right time when they are starting to think about a certain thing, that’s very useful. Of course all the tech players such as Google are ahead in this in terms of predicting people’s movements and providing predictive alerts relevant to their journeys, but how that is applied to grocery really interesting for brands like ours.

“So we are looking at how to bring that capability in, or even if we can find a way to monitor how much you buy and stock your house. So for example, from your purchasing we will know you’re about to run out – could there perhaps be an auto replenishment option, or the capacity to auto-drop it into your basket when you only have a few cans left – that’s where it can tie into the internet of things.

“Or it could be a weight-sensitive pad that the cans sit on, which auto-triggers things into the basket when it becomes lighter – it is all about becoming predictive – that’s a big opportunity. It will take us a while to get there but that’s where we are headed, he said.

He added that there is scope for a whole new kind of collaboration with retail partners and start-ups to explore these areas.

However, he added all plans are in the early stages. "It's all very well having the idea, but having the technology to do it all is another thing entire;y. We are starting to get the technology to be more personliased with shoppers, abut the predictive piece is further aware - we are still working out the opportunities athere and how it relates to the IoT, and what retail parnterships that may trigger. We are not sure what form those [partnerships] would take, but we have had early discussions with partners on that, so it will come, it's just more part of our three-year plan than one-year one," he added.

The FMCG giant will also be focusing on deploying marketing plans for other, newer brands this year, such as Glaceau Smartwater.

Coca-Cola has already made moves into the IoT arena via a partnership with start-up Misfit. This saw it launch a branded wearable fitness monitor as part of ongoing marketing efforts to encourage healthier living among young people.

Coca-Cola Marketing Rugby World Cup

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