Coke Zero vs. Pepsi Max: Which Media Plan Had More Fizz?

Coke and Pepsi's rivalry is the stuff of legend in the ad business. They vigorously compete for share of voice, share of heart and share of throat. In the case of Coke Zero and Pepsi Max, these beverage giants are chasing a burgeoning market of men who apparently aren't man enough to own up to drinking a soda marked "diet." Coke Zero launched five years ago and commands a healthy lead in sales. Pepsi, however, launched a new positioning over the summer. Communicating to Gen Y males -- or MenY's (I wonder if I can trademark that) -- who are notoriously light TV viewers and generally difficult to reach presents an interesting challenge. So I was particularly interested to discover how the two famed marketers fared in managing their media programs. Creative executions Coke Zero's 'Four S' Strategy Coke Zero centered its brand media strategy on four key pillars: sports, social media, schools and Spanish language media. The marketer secured prominent advertising placements in and around college basketball, college football and Nascar. To build brand discussion, Coke Zero also implemented several clever social media and college programs. Lastly, Coke Zero shifted just under a fifth of its budget into Hispanic media in 2010. Television creative took on a decidedly laddish theme. "Do Over," for instance, features several young men coming home from rather embarrassing situations. The narrator asks, "It's 2010, weren't we supposed to have time machines by now?" In a second spot -- "What ever happened to clones?" -- the main character, a young man, is shown in the background playing a video game while his girlfriend complains to him about her day. The narrator asks, "Weren't we supposed to have clones by now?" While the first guy continues with his video game, we see a clone of the young man step out of a doorway, sit next to the young lady and hold her hand attentively. Yet another clone creeps up behind the couch with a sock puppet to make the girlfriend laugh. A third clone descends from the ceiling, guitar in hand, serenading the young lady to sing her troubles away. This all happens while the young man can just get on with his game. Pepsi Max: Zero Calories, Maximum Taste RATINGS Paid media strategy Coke Zero's paid media plan this year so far has been essentially 99% broadcast. It also focused almost solely on sports programming. Over 70% of its TV commercials ran on CBS, many during coverage of the NCAA basketball March Madness season. Cable represented just 12% of the total budget and was split between TNT and ESPN. Coke Zero with broadcast partner Turner Sports screened the first Nascar race in 3D -- the Coke Zero 400 race in Daytona, which could be viewed in 3D on a 3D TV or computer monitor with matching 3D glasses. It also made a very significant shift in targeting among the Hispanic market by placing 18% of its total budget on Univision. Last year it did not buy any Spanish Language television Pepsi Max employed a broader range of media. It put 72% of its media plan into broadcast television, contrasting Coke Zero's 51% in broadcast, 28% in cable and 21% in spot. Pepsi Max's sports buy included auto racing, but its purchase spanned a wider variety of programming to deliver higher reach. Its top two programming genres were reality and comedy. Owned media strategy Earned media strategy Coke Zero posted a clever video, available both in 2D and 3D, which was a variation of the Coke Zero & Mentos stunt. It became a popular viral video receiving almost 3 million views in 2D and nearly 560,000 views in 3D so far. Summary The two plans were very different. While Coke Zero had the benefit of a bigger budget, it made clear choices about where it wanted to play in what looked like a more deliberate and distinct strategy. It made a clear decision with their television plan to single-mindedly chase the young male audience through sports programming events. Its substantial investment in Hispanic media gave the brand one edge over Pepsi Max. It also intelligently employed branded content online. Pepsi Max's plan had a more traditional media flavor to it, delivering strong audiences for the advertising -- nothing wrong with that. And it did a smart job leveraging Doritos' early buzz for the forthcoming Super Bowl. But Coke Zero seemed to have a few more, fresher ideas in its approach to media. Research and data compiled by Nora Scullin at Optimedia.

Coke Zero vs. Pepsi Max: Which Media Plan Had More Fizz?

Featured Stories