Menu
Events and Attractions

Intersport Activation Summit: Coke's McCune Explores Reaching Youth Worldwide

Coca-Cola VP/Global Partnerships & Experiential Marketing Scott McCune was a featured interview Thursday at the ‘13 Intersport Activation Summit, where he discussed how the soda giant leverages its global partnerships in some 200 countries around the world. He specifically outlined Coke’s “Move to the Beat” campaign created for the '12 London Games.

GAME ON: Coke began its London Games marketing in ‘07 and created its “Move to the Beat” campaign as an effort to attract a younger demographic of Coke drinkers. McCune said, “The debate was whether teenagers are really engaged in the Olympic Games. There was a challenge there. How do we create branding content experiences that are so compelling that consumers are sharing it and buying it?” Coke relied heavily on music to drive brand interest around the Olympics, creating some 60 pieces of content around its campaign, including a 30-minute Beat TV show that aired every night of the Olympics. The company also created concerts tied to the torch relay. He said, “We found that (teenagers) were more interested in the social side than what was happening on the track. As opposed to just a TV commercial, we created a concert.” Coke also partnered with Live Nation for a concert in London held the day before the opening ceremonies. But tying the campaign to the 100 countries that activated around the company’s Olympic marketing program was key to driving sales. McCune: “It only works from a scalable standpoint if we can network it together. Not in a silo, but in that they are totally networked together. It boils down to local market activation.”

YOUTH MOVEMENT: So how successful was Coke’s Olympic campaign in drawing a younger group of Coke drinkers? McCune said, “We didn’t recruit the teenagers as much as we had hoped to. A lot of the volume we had did not come from teenagers. They are not following the Olympics like their parents’ generation.” But McCune sees a better outcome in attracting a younger audience as it activates around the FIFA World Cup in ‘14. He said, “The biggest difference is consumer passion.” McCune added that “outside the U.S., soccer ranks only behind music in consumer passion.” He said, “The No. 2 passion is (soccer). The No. 3 passion is (soccer) and the No. 4 passion is (soccer).”

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2013/05/31/Events-and-Attractions/McCune.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2013/05/31/Events-and-Attractions/McCune.aspx

CLOSE