(Devon Rosenberry) Gone are the days when
companies spoon fed their marketing jingles to consumers via
television—instead, they’ve gotten really smart about how to engage consumers
via personalized social media advertising. Just think of all the things, or
people who, in part, owe their fame to Facebook or Twitter—American Idol (Susan
Boyle), Zappos, Barack Obama, Grey’s Anatomy,
Lost, Perez Hilton, Lady Gaga, Tila Tequila, Lindsay Lohan…and the list goes
on.
YouTube is another social marketing craze and
Coca-Cola is now using it to unite the world for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Through their “Longest Celebration”
campaign, Coca-Cola encourages people from around the world to upload videos of
their “goal celebration” dances (the dance fans make when their team scores a
goal) to YouTube. The campaign was
inspired by a memorable celebration dance preformed over 20 years ago by
footballer Roger Milla during the 1990 World Cup.
In terms of U.S. audiences, Obama may have
convinced via Twitter that “yes we can,” however, Coca-Cola has a much more daunting
task at hand. As an American born
company, Coca-Cola must convince American’s that soccer—one of the least
popular U.S. sports—is cool. What’s so
hard about that? While football is just as important as a morning cup of coffee
to people in other countries, it is usually considered the overlooked sport in
the U.S. Case in point: Americans
completely changed the name of the sport to soccer and created a new one in its
place.
To get around this issue, instead of simply
telling American’s to watch the games, Coca-Cola has decided to approach their
initiative in a new way through contests and prizes. The grand prize isn’t half bad either. The winners of “The Longest Celebration” will
win World Cup themed prizes, including tickets to attend a match in South
Africa. So who will dance their way to
South Africa? And will Coca-Cola be able
to make the 2010 World Cup a memorable moment in social media history? Tune into the Coca-Cola YouTube channel to
find out.
