Coke Zone relaunched as content hub
Coca-Cola has relaunched its Coke Zone digital loyalty scheme as an online hub for consumers to find news about its brands and competitions; a move it hopes will grow its fan base at “key moments” during the year.
Currently the site features information about Coca-Cola’s Christmas marketing campaign, details about a location-based music app built in partnership with Spotify called Coca-Cola Placelists and a competition to win a PlayStation 4 with Coke Zero.
The drinks company said a review of the site found the majority of its members were visiting Coke Zone for content rather than using points collected form on-pack codes to redeem rewards, such as branded merchandise and entries into prize draws.
Coca-Cola made an undisclosed donation to conservation charity WWF last month on behalf of all Coke Zone members with leftover points and sent emails to registered Coke Zone members in April encouraging them to redeem their points ahead of 16 October 2013.
A spokeswoman says by making these changes Coca-Cola will be engaging “even more” through “focused brand experiences” and digital content in one central platform.
“Coke Zone remains the virtual door to the Coca-Cola world and we are focusing more on the content that our fans tell us matters to them. The new site will ensure that Coke Zone remains a relevant and engaging social and brand experience platform, which will help us to grow our fanbase at key moments during the year,” the spokeswoman adds.
Some Coke Zone members have taken to Twitter to complain about the changes, which quietly rolled out last month, however. ”@Ian_Chapman” tweeted Coke Zone to say: “Probably have been better if you closed it as it serves no purpose now. Probably not answer your marketing team were looking 4”, while @RossPB tweeted: “Seems rubbish compared to what you offered previously #Disappointed”.
Stuart Evans, general manager of ICLP Loyalty, also thinks the relaunch is “disappointing”.
He adds: “Hopefully some Coke loyalists with a creative streak will go on the ‘Tell us what you want’ page and do the job of the Coke marketing department of actually coming up with some more cool, fun stuff that reflects the brand and creates excitement, advocacy and entertainment with their customers.”
While there is not currently a place for fans to register their details, Coca-Cola says data capture will form a part of the new site in the future and Coke Zone will continue to email registered users. This suggests more loyalty-based elements could be built into the hub in the coming months as it gears up for its other seasonal marketing campaigns and sponsorship activations.
Coke Zone’s FAQ pages state that previous Coke Zone users can close their accounts by calling a customer service line and that personal data will be removed from closed accounts after 18 months from the last login.
