Coca-Cola is telling Pepsi-Cola that when it comes to Super Bowl advertising, you can walk and chew gum at the same time.
In December, Pepsi-Cola said that it would not buy commercial time during the 2010 Super Bowl for the first time in more than two decades. Company executives said they wanted to concentrate on a campaign centered on philanthropy and the social media rather than spots during the big game.
On Wednesday, in a Webcast news conference, Coca-Cola executives discussed how they intend to incorporate philanthropy and the social media into their Super Bowl ad plans. The social media component will come courtesy of Facebook, which is teaming up with Coca-Cola for the initiative.
Coca-Cola is scheduled to run two commercials during Super Bowl XLIV on CBS on Feb. 7. The company bought the time from CBS before Pepsi-Cola announced that it would skip the game.
Visitors to the Coca-Cola fan page on Facebook (facebook.com/livepositively) will be able to share virtual gifts with friends, after which three things are to take place:
* The gift recipients get an image of a Coke bottle that is displayed on their Facebook pages and news feed.
* The gift givers will get a 20-second sneak peek at one of the two Coca-Cola Super Bowl commercials.
* Coca-Cola will donate a dollar to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
The altruistic element to be added to the Super Bowl ad effort reflects a longtime corporate philosophy “to do a little good while you’re refreshing people,” Katie Bayne, chief marketing officer at Coca-Cola North America.
The philanthropy also fits in with a Coca-Cola corporate campaign carrying the theme “Live positively,” Ms. Bayne said, which discusses subjects like recycling, as well as with the campaign for the Coca-Cola brand, which carries the theme “Open happiness.”
As for Pepsi-Cola’s absence from the Super Bowl, “we’ll miss them,” Ms. Bayne said. “They have other things planned.”
For Coca-Cola, the Super Bowl represents a chance “to be part of the celebration,” she added, and to “make brand-equity deposits” with the large audience expected to watch the game.
The two Coke spots during the game, created by Wieden & Kennedy, are part of the “Open happiness” campaign. One features characters from “The Simpsons” and tells a story about Montgomery Burns, Homer Simpson’s stingy boss, losing his entire fortune.
The other Coke spot in the Super Bowl, set to a version of Ravel’s “Bolero,” shows a man sleepwalking through some scary moments in the African veldt.
Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola have zigged and zagged their way through many Super Bowls. In the early years, both brands bought spots during the game. Coke pulled out for many years after Pepsi-Cola kept outscoring Coke in the annual USA Today Ad Meter competition, in which consumers rank their favorite Super Bowl spots.
Coke returned to the Super Bowl in 2007 and the two brands went head-to-head again that year as well as in 2008 and 2009.
Instead of advertising during Super Bowl XLIV, Pepsi-Cola is introducing what it calls the Pepsi Refresh Project, which is heavily based in the digital media rather than in traditional media like TV. The effort will be centered on the Pepsi brand making donations to organizations that are chosen by consumers.
Although Pepsi-Cola will be absent from the Super Bowl, there will still be a beverage battle. Coca-Cola will face off against Dr Pepper Cherry, a soda sold by the Dr Pepper Snapple Group. The Dr Pepper Cherry spot, created by the Los Angeles office of Deutsch, will feature the rock band Kiss.
During the Webcast, Ms. Bayne and Pio Schunker, senior vice president for creative excellence — yes, that is his title — at Coca-Cola North America, showed some Coca-Cola spots that will appear during other high-profile TV events in addition to the Super Bowl. The venues will include the Daytona 500 Nascar race and the Winter Olympics.
As the Webcast ended before 2 p.m. Eastern time, Ms. Bayne noted that 2,500 virtual Coke gifts had already been given away through Facebook.
There may have been much more but Coca-Cola’s timing was off: the Webcast was up against the introduction by Apple of the iPad.