Coke woos young Taiwan

The campaign is led by a 45-second TVC and island-wide out-of-home, to be followed by a rollout which includes radio, concert sponsoring, interactive and promotions.

“Our goal is to reclaim Coke’s top-of-mind position in consumers’ minds,” said Eliot Lin, chief executive officer, McCann Erickson Taiwan.

While Coke remains the market leader in the cola and carbonated categories, Lin said brand values needed to be reinforced because of increasing competition from other segments.

The campaign, called ‘Only Coke’, updates a familiar repertoire.

The locally produced TVC reels through scenes of friends breakdancing, shooting hoop, watching TV, and clowning around, interspersed with shots of classic Coca-Cola. Lin described the campaign budget as “substantial”.

It is likely it will need to be because in Taiwan the once dominant carbonated category has been under siege from the emergence of new beverages during the past decade.

 “Taiwan probably has more beverage categories than any other place in the world,” said Lin. “The market is extremely competitive.”

The undisputed leader is the RTD tea segment, which was once predominantly the beverage of choice of an older, blue-collar consumer.

A decade of heavy adspend has broadened its appeal, and RTD tea drinks are popular even with young consumer groups. Today nearly every Taiwan bottler - Coca-Cola included - has tea drinks in its product mix.

According to ACNielsen Taiwan, of the NT$1.4 billion (US$43 million) spent on advertising for non-alcoholic beverages in 2007, one third (NT$480 million) was for RTD teas, while RTD coffees commanded 14 per cent (NT$209 million) followed by carbonated beverages with 14 per cent (NT$200 million), fruit/vegetable drinks with 10 per cent (NT$145 million) and bottled water with seven per cent (NT$103 million).

Interestingly, in the first quarter of this year, carbonated beverages was the only category to increase adspend as nearly all others cut back.