Coke Can for a Young Way of Living

©Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola and beverage can producer Ball Packaging Europe intend to establish coke cans as companions for a young lifestyle. The key: a QR code that connects consumers by mobile phone to the Coke Music Portal – thereby making the beverage can a mobile link between music and refreshment.

As part of the “Coke Sound Up” campaign the new 25-cl sleek cans for Coca-Cola will come with a printed QR code (Quick Response) with which consumers can directly connect to Coca-Cola’s music portal via their cell phones. In cooperation with the participating bands Coca-Cola conceives exclusive music shows the details of which are kept secret until shortly before the event. The latest news is available on the Internet and those scanning the QR code with their cell phone camera are automatically connected to the Coke Music Portal. The visual link comes care of the drums and headsets on the can.

Taste, Hear, See

Gerlof Toenhake is Director Marketing at Ball Packaging Europe and explains: “After a recently launched print ad campaign by Ball in which a video clip is activated by smart phone, the beverage can itself is the new communication channel now through which young consumers are addressed. The beverage can appeals to not one but several senses of the consumer – taste, hearing, sight – thereby turning into a multi-media, interactive pleasure amplifier.“ The new handy 25cl can was already launched last year and was designed to underpin the claim of the mobile, portable refreshment drink. Since early 2011 the 25cl Sleek Can has now also been introduced for Coca-Cola Zero, Mezzo Mix Orange and Fanta Orange. These little cans are also a hit in terms of looks – alongside the logo they feature changing motifs.

Additional Turnover

By company accounts the Sleek Can fills a market niche. According to Coca-Cola its sales neither ate into the sales of 0.5 l PET bottles nor of 0.33 cl beverage cans – it managed to generate additional sales.

QR Codes as a Marketing Tool

Originally, QR codes were employed to label assemblies and components for logistics purposes for automotive manufacturing. The QR code consists of a square matrix comprising black and white dots representing the encoded data in binary format. The data is protected by a code that corrects any mistakes. The initial requirement for developing such a code was made by the Toyota Group, for which Denso worked as an OEM. While it is true that the name “QR code” is a trademark registered by Denso Wave Incorporated Japan, the latter do not exercise their rights by asking licence fees. The QR code has now become established as a global, public standard and in Japan it features on nearly every advertising poster.

QR codes can be easily printed using any customary printing process. Only a strong contrast such as black on white is required. In direct marketing this code is increasingly applied to products and/or their packaging meant to give consumers direct value added. Today, many mobile phones come with built-in cameras and software allowing the codes to be read. If the phones also feature a web browser, it is generally enough to have the QR code captured by the reading software of the cell phone’s camera to be directly routed to the corresponding website. A QR code is suitable for encoding any type of text, including telephone numbers, address details or product information.

Detailed product information possible

Other applications beside route information or bookmarks include providing information on foodstuffs that shoppers can download to their cell phones using this code: e.g. where the product was grown or comes from, whether pesticides were used in its cultivation, etc. This can also prove beneficial to retail. A pioneer in this field is the Japanese food wholesaler Aeon that has already been providing information on its foodstuffs by means of QR codes since 2004. This mobile tagging is particularly popular in Japan and has been increasingly used in Europe since 2007.

The use of QR codes to support mobile marketing activities is also endorsed by such aspects as real-time communication, the possibility of an efficient customer loyalty tool and the reinforcement of classic campaigns. Applications are wide and varied and can complement cross-media strategies in a target-group specific way. Experts agree that this type of on-the-product communication will flourish in future: even today one in three mobile phones sold in Germany is a Smartphone – and this means that mobile data streams will also take on ever larger volumes.