Coca-Cola Euro 2016 content marketing hopes

Euro 2016 will soon be upon us and one thing is definite, besides England’s exit in the group stages. There will be reams of content.

A more in-depth look at the different campaigns may be warranted at a later date. But for today we will examine Coca-Cola content marketing strategy, which debuted a new campaign for the tournament.

Coca-Cola is such a fan of sporting events that there’s barely need to check it’s on the list. If you did, you would find a lot of other familiar football-aligned brands such as Carlsberg as official beer, McDonald’s official food and so forth.

With regard to the Coca-Cola content marketing , beyond the usual on-pack promos and ‘Taste the Feeling’ TV ads, there are a couple of interesting ideas. Bearing in mind Coca-Cola’s content marketing pedigree it should be good. Right?

Yet in the UK, it appears the drinks company has decided to give it a miss. Instead, it is going down the all too familiar route of a ticket giveaway.

Compare this to France, where there will be a TV channel and a website. The YouTube channel is Coke TV and the site is Happiness Football Club, which was launched with Konbini last year.

The latter is quite slick. Although Coke’s branding is upfront, it does not get in the way of the content, which is reassuringly football-focused.

Proof that event sponsorship deals are now more about rights than details such as player interviews – mopped up by the team sponsors.

Maybe more UK activity will be announced at a later date. At the same time, it may also be proof that tournament sponsorship allows less leeway than backing a team. But then again, there is no standout Euro 2016 content from England sponsor Lucozade either.

Coca-Cola Euro 2016 content marketing hopes is part of Content24, the online magazine by London content marketing agency FirstWord.