Coca-Cola asks agencies for big idea

by Glen Mutel, Campaign 29-Jul-05

Coca-Cola has assembled a longlist of advertising agencies to help it come up with a "big idea" for its next global brand campaign.

The company held a brainstorming session in Paris last week, chaired by
its global chief creative officer, Esther Lee. Ogilvy & Mather New York,
Berlin Cameron/Red Cell, Publicis Paris, Mother and Wieden & Kennedy

Amsterdam attended the meeting.

Naked Communications and the Los Angeles agency Amoeba were invited to
present non-traditional communications strategies.

Coke has asked the agencies to come up with ideas both for its flagship
Coca-Cola brand and for its other, supporting products.

The move presents Mother with an excellent opportunity to make more
headway into the Coca-Cola roster. The agency already works on the Dr
Pepper, Lilt and Oasis brands domestically, and handles the main
Coca-Cola account, which it has gradually prised from McCann Erickson
over the past two years.

Mother's first brand campaign for Coca-Cola , "I wish", which featured a
woman handing out bottles of Coke in the street while singing, was
rolled out internationally.

Coke is reviewing many of its global agency relationships - it recently
appointed StrawberryFrog to handle Diet Coke in Germany, while last
October, the independent VCCP replaced Lowe as Diet Coke's UK agency of
record.

Despite ramping up its efforts to find new work for its main brand, Coke
is keen to spread its marketing activity across its entire portfolio of
products, thus reducing its reliance on its carbonated soft-drink
brands.

The company is about to launch a poster campaign from VCCP.