5 Insights from Wendy Clark, SVP, Coca-Cola, at #CannesLions

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5 Insights from
WendyClarkSenior Vice President, Coca-Cola Disclosure: coca-cola
is an Ogilvy client

2. The world is changing fast, and Wendy Clark, Coca-
Cola’s senior vice president of integrated marketing, had
some thoughts on why: millennials and teenagers have
two states of being: asleep, and connected. In the latter,
they’re constantly driving the conversation. To keep up, she
adheres by four mandates for instant communications.
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3. “Silence is not
anoption.”If you don’t speak, someone will speak for you. Coke
learned that 80 to 85% of Coke’s content is generated
somewhere outside of the brand—primarily a combination
of millennials, teens and other social audiences. “At
Coke, we have decided we are not willing to delegate
all our communication,” she said. Instead, the company
tries to work with the audience to co-create content—
as with Coke’s campaign to put names on cans.
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4. Ifyoudon’tspeak,
someonewill
speakforyou.
-Wendy Clark
Senior vice presient
coca-cola
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5. Speed trumps
perfectionClark gave a shout-out to Denny’s for one of the
latest in its line of clever, viral tweets: “BREAKING:
Denny’s Buys Beets for $3 billion, Makes Huge Salad,”
which riffed on news about the Apple-Beats deal.
“This tweet is a great example of real time,” Clark
said. “It’s authentic its in Denny’s brand voice. They
even managed to wedge the product in there.”
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6. The world needs
moregoodcontent.But in our haste to have contextual relevance, we have to be
careful, Clark said. “We have to do work that matters,” she
said. “The goal isn’t to have more content; it’s more good
content.” Coke’s intelligence team determined that that
interest around music was getting stronger and stronger. “So
with SAP, we created a feature where people could switch the
language of their song,” she says. “They could listen to the
top trending songs in any of the four languages we provided.”
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7. dowork
thatmatters-Wendy Clark
Senior vice presient
coca-cola
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New models
ofworkingTo both keep up and steer the conversation, Coke
now has two teams: the Hub and Hustle. The Hub
is a network of 23 social-engagement centers, all
connected to a center in Atlanta. The folks there
are constantly listening to and analyzing the
conversation and communication around our brand.
The Hustle acts like a newsroom. They source content
around the world, creating the conversation.
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coke and
soccerAs an example of tapping into real-time relevancy,
Clark spoke about Coke’s longstanding partnership
with the World Cup, which is a natural fit:
Football is an inclusive, democratic game, and
Coke is for everyone, Clark said. In one series
of 16 videos, blind soccer players get to touch
the World Cup trophy, which is brought to their
coaching center by Coke. (Usually only state
officials and winning teams are allowed.)
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