Content marketing on Coca-Cola, luxury and Black Friday

Today’s Content24 takes a look at different ends of the FMCG market – a nice Coca-Cola tie-up with Microsoft, the forthcoming ‘Black Friday’ sales and content marketing strategy for luxury goods

Coca-Cola asks Microsoft to adapt age-determination site

When Coca-Cola realised that its distinctive bottle design was soon to mark its 100th birthday, it came up with an innovative idea to celebrate. The company approached Microsoft with a request to adapt its Howoldareyourobot site to tell the age of any Coca-Cola bottle.

In case you’ve missed it, Howoldareyourobot determines your age from an uploaded picture. The link is here but be warned – it actually made me out to be a year older than I am. More botox waiter!

It’s a nice twist – and illustrates how content marketing works well when lined up with technology.

Has Black Friday failed to connect with UK shoppers?

One of the highlights of the countdown to Christmas is watching fully-grown adults fighting over cheap TVs in their local superstore. Yes, I’m talking about that dubious US import Black Friday. I say dubious because the rationale in the US and its link with Thanksgiving makes sense. In the UK it comes across as plastic – like one of those cheap TV sets.

This sentiment appears to be taking hold in the press, although retailers are hedging their bets. In terms of content marketing, Currys and BT have made an attempt in terms of showing how to get the best deals. Many other retailers who have embraced content, such as John Lewis, are simply relying on banners.

The best is probably Currys.

Black Friday could be a great environment for consumer content marketing. Yet the fact that Asda, the first to import the concept, has wielded the axe shows that maybe retailers are realising it’s not such a magic bullet after all. Despite selling a lot of specially brought-in stock for last year’s event, Asda said its food sales were down on the day.

Luxury goods failing to tell their story

This is a comment piece by Ana Andjelic, senior vice-president at media agency Havas, about the luxury goods sector and how it is failing at content marketing. It includes some interesting points, such as its eclipse by the tech sector in consumer hearts and minds.

She says: “One would think that, once digital media liberated storytelling from the confines of video and print, the luxury industry would rush to seduce customers with its rich tales.”

Whether this holds true is debatable, because many high-end fashion brands are doing great work on YouTube.

On the other hand, there is considerable potential in using old marketing material, especially when the brand proposition is based around its heritage. Yet it is difficult to think of many that are doing so.