“隱姓埋名”——可口可樂營銷新策略

相比起單純的商品推銷，當下營銷更注重“產品文化”的推銷，因為文化滲透所產生的效力更持久，精明的商家深諳此理。“暢爽開懷”，這是可口可樂公司在營銷策略上開辟的一條新路——對自己的品牌只字不提，而是通過音樂將自己的“產品文化”廣而“播”之。當你哼著那些瑯瑯上口的小調時，那應該是商家高興的時候了，因為這就是“產品文化”的力量所在。

——Mac

Commercials for Coca-Cola are sometimes so shrouded by storytelling that viewers can make a game of brand-spotting. The game—let’s call it “Spot the Coke Can”—takes a particularly long time during the cinematic spots in movie theaters.

In the global advertising campaign called Open Happiness that was introduced in January， the Coca Cola Company takes the game to a logical last step by 1)omitting any reference to the brand in a 2)catchy song it created and sold last winter.

With the title Open Happiness， the song is an advertisement by association.

Coca-Cola signed a crew of well-known band members and performers to record the single. It also produced several different language versions for other countries.

On Thursday morning， the song will take another promotional step forward when 3)MTV is expected to show the 4)premiere of the music video for Open Happiness. Coca-Cola said it did not pay MTV for the showing.

As is the case with the song， viewers of the video will be hard-pressed to spot the Coca-Cola brand. The Coke reference “is so super-fast that you really have to be looking for it，” said a Coke spokesman.

Umut Ozaydinli， the global music marketing manager for the Coca-Cola Company， said the 5)upbeat song pulled consumers into the Open Happiness campaign， rather than pushing it on them like traditional advertising.

“Coca-Cola is such a strong and magical brand that we can come out with something with no branding or very little branding，” he said in a telephone interview from Turkey on Wednesday， where the company plans to release a Turkish-language version of the song. “All the communications we are doing around the song enable consumers to connect the song with the brand.”

While Coca-Cola has produced songs in the past—before the Summer Olympics in Beijing last year， the company released eight song remixes by DJs — Open Happiness stands out because the company is charging for the single on 6)iTunes and Amazon.com. The musical strategy may remind some of I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing， the 7)jingle-turned-pop-hit that was first featured as a part of Coca-Cola’s classic 1971 commercial known as Hilltop. In the commercial， young people sang about wanting to “buy the world a Coke.”

“I think they have been looking for something that has that kind of impact，” said John Rudolph， the chief executive of 8)Bug Music， which licenses songs for commercial uses.

Music is， of course， an important part of many advertisers’ messages. Last year， for instance， the RB singer 9)Chris Brown released a hit song， Forever， that doubled as a jingle for the 10)Doublemint brand of gum. The song even incorporated the product’s slogan， “double your pleasure， double your fun，” into the lyrics.

Mr. Rudolph noted that few companies are able to afford the production of an original song that doesn’t even mention the brand. But if any company can， it’s Coca-Cola.

For Open Happiness， the company collaborated with 11)Atlantic Records and signed many artists， like 12)Brendon Urie of 13)Panic at the Disco， 14)Travis McCoy of 15)Gym Class Heroes， and 16)Janelle Monae and so on. Ms. Monae， a Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter， said it “was promoting a good cause，” happiness， that all people could agree on.

Being able to work with fellow artists and “write the words and lyrics that we like without feeling like the company was saying， ‘Sing about Coca-Cola，’ it made it more true to my core values，” she said.

The lyrics for the Open Happiness song are as sweet and 17)bubbly as the soft drink. “C’mon and lift me up， it’s a brand new day， open up a lil’ happiness today， so I can be someone new，” goes the chorus. The single was released in the United States in March. Tying the music video to the Coke commercials for the campaign is the same 18)five-note melody.

Mr. Ozaydinli speculated that the lack of an in-your-face Coke message is “one of the key reasons” consumers have shown interest in the song. On 19)MySpace， it has been streamed more than 600，000 times.

According to Coca-Cola， the single reached the No. 1 spot on the top 100 music download chart of Baidu.com， a leading Chinese web site.

But it has not found as many fans in the United States: it reached No. 37 on Apple iTunes pop chart for a short period of time， the company said， and no longer appears on the iTunes lists.

Mr. Ozaydinli acknowledged that the song did not perform as well in the United States， but said that “chart success is only one element of the equation.” Coca-Cola said it would consider producing future songs for the Open Happiness campaign in the coming months. A half-French， half-English-language version of the tune will be released in time for the Winter Olympics in 20)Vancouver next year.

可口可樂的廣告片有時太注重故事情節了，觀眾在看的時候得來一個品牌競猜游戲。我們把這個游戲叫“找可樂罐罐”吧，在電影院里玩這游戲尤其耗時。

今年一月，可口可樂啟動了一個名為“暢爽開懷”的全球廣告攻略。其中所采用的瑯瑯上口的廣告歌是去年冬天創作并推出的，歌中沒有任何有關可樂品牌的指稱。此舉把“猜品牌”這一游戲推到了合理的最后一步。

這首名為《暢爽開懷》的歌靠的就是“聯想”作廣告。

為了錄制這支廣告單曲，可口可樂公司與不少知名的樂隊成員及藝人簽約; 公司還為其在不同國家的市場制作了幾種不同的語言版本。

這個周四早上，《暢爽開懷》這首歌的音樂視頻將在MTV上首播，這把宣傳活動又推進一步。可口可樂稱公司自己并沒有為這次播放向MTV支付任何費用。

與歌曲本身的情況如出一轍，看到這個音樂視頻的觀眾需要使勁去找“可口可樂”這個牌子。可口可樂公司的發言人稱，在視頻中，提及“可口可樂”的部分“飛快閃現，你確實得用心去找。”

可口可樂公司的全球音樂營銷經理烏穆特#8226;奧薩迪利說，這首歡快的歌曲把消費者吸引到“暢爽開懷”的宣傳活動當中，而不是像傳統的廣告手段那樣把產品宣傳強加于人們身上。……