My Coke Rewards: Combining Mobile and Social Media to Drive Brand Loyalty

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We recently chatted with Michael La Kier of Coca-Cola about how the company ties social media and mobile marketing into its My Coke Rewards program to drive brand loyalty. From the interview on eMarketer Total Access:

eMarketer: Does the program enable consumers to enter codes via mobile phone?

Mr. La Kier: We offered mobile from day one—it is a big component of My Coke Rewards. People drink our brands on the go and don’t want to carry a bottle cap all day long. They can enter a code via mobile phone and SMS texting. Mobile has always been a pretty big part of our program from a participation standpoint and from a mobile messaging and marketing perspective. We also have a desktop widget so people can enter codes directly from their desktop computer.

We have a variety of ways for people to participate in the program—via SMS, the site and the widget. When they become members, we can look at what brands they’re drinking, which packs they’re buying, promotions they’ve participated in and rewards they’ve redeemed. We look at how people want to interact with us, what information do we want to know, how do we provide value and get value. We invite them to take surveys. We have a lot of information about what consumers are doing and their passions so that we can serve up rewards, offers and sweepstakes based on that information.

eMarketer: How are you using social media platforms to guide strategy on My Coke Rewards?

Mr. La Kier: About 12 to 18 months ago, we created a private social community. We offer the people in this network first looks at new program features and get feedback in the form of discussion boards, activities and interviews.

From a consumer-facing perspective, a lot of the promotion we do on the site has a social element. For example, this summer for Coke Classic we had a design-a-can promotion. People could submit their design, vote and the finalists received prizes.

eMarketer: How have you deployed social media tools to engage My Coke Rewards members?

Mr. La Kier: We already have a base of 13.5 million members. We wanted to provide something fun and unique to highlight the special moments of summer that people share with Coca-Cola. That’s the reason for the collectible can series—to let people interact and create their own summer moments.

Once you created the cans, you could share the designs on Facebook and elsewhere. We created an integrated online and offline program around sharing special moments with Coke in summer. We used social and viral aspects to broaden the likelihood that people would participate in the program. Social media is just another way for us to get the word out and turn our advocates into brand champions.

The full version of this interview is available here, to eMarketer Total Access subscribers only. Every day they have access to new interviews with digital marketing leaders and trendsetting entrepreneurs. We also recently interviewed Coca-Cola’s Carol Kruse about the company’s use of digital media and marketing and the evolution of social media. Those stories are here:

• Coke Weighs in on Earned Media ROI
• Coca-Cola’s Carol Kruse on the Value of Social Media Marketing