Linda Kovarik admits that her journey to Asia and into its advertising scene did not follow a well-trodden path. Upon graduating from college, the bra designer from South Dakota decided to explore the sights of Kathmandu. Conceding that geography was not her strong point, the regional director of creative strategy and development for Coca-Cola Asia-Pacific somehow ended up in Changchun, Manchuria.
“The bath tap was shooting out rusty water and I would sit on my bed and cry every day. But I was determined not to return home, which turned out to be the best decision of my life,” she enthuses. “It really helped a person as sheltered as I was to grow up.”
Eighteen years later, she is still in Asia. But her foray into advertising was accidental. She had been working for Unesco in Beijing when she met her husband, the former regional head of Fallon, Charles Edwards. After seeing what he did for a living, it was like the planets were suddenly aligned, she remembers.
“Advertising is better than world peace,” she jokes.
If Kovarik’s life seems colourful, it owes as much to her personality as to circumstance, say people who have worked with her. Her gregarious nature and sassy wit are in stark contrast to the buttoned-down, corporate conservatism typical of her employer. She insists: “I don’t ever want to be ‘Coke-ified’.”
However, her ability to dodge questions suggests she fits the Coke mould more than she would like people to believe. She is tightlipped on advertising plans for Sprite, Coca-Cola’s first global brand to be managed out of Asia, although she is expecting “sheer and utter brilliance” from her agencies.
Meanwhile, she is tentative on the problems that beset Red Lounge, Coke China’s integrated marketing unit, which she inherited when she joined the company five months ago. “In Red Lounge, creative and media talk face-to-face on a daily basis, which is much more effective than the two disciplines operating independently,” she says, although insiders speculate that the unit will be disbanded soon after the Olympics.
“To have people working solely on Coke doesn’t ensure perfection. But it does tend to push you closer to a satisfactory end result.”
She acknowledges, however, that a team dedicated to one brand does have a potential drawback: blinkered creatives. “It’s a double-edged sword,” she admits. “Working on non-Coke brands could bring in fresh perspective and inspiration. We don’t want them to develop tunnel vision.”
Kovarik has a few ideas to nip the problem in the bud after the Olympics next year. Team rotation could be one way of keeping things fresh, she says. Another idea is to let them work on other Coke brands. While Red Lounge may have its faults, at least it’s a solid attempt to join the dots of the agency supply chain, she says.
Her move to the soft drinks giant, after stints at Leo Burnett and Beacon Communications as a planning maestro, was borne out of frustration at what she describes as “agency-to-agency baton-passing”. Being involved in only stages of a campaign before handing the work over to someone else was - and still is - a serious weakness of the agency model, she says.
While a close eye will be kept on how Red Lounge evolves, the unit could be the springboard on which Coke recovers the ground it has lost in Asia, she insists.
Kovarik, she joined the company at a time when Coca-Cola’s global share of all cola sales fell to 53 per cent in 2006, down from 57 per cent in 2000. And while Coke dominates in Asia, rival Pepsi holds the majority 40 per cent of the cola market in India - and Coke has some catching up to do in China and Thailand.
The world’s most famous brand needs to muster all its marketing strength if it is to continue to grow in a fizzy drinks market that continues to flatten. The spotlight on health has turned low-calorie drinks Coke Light and Coke Zero into substitutes for the once ubiquitous red-canned Coke Classic.
Part of Kovarik’s strategy is to encourage her co-workers to think creatively - but keep things simple.
“Simplicity is really about maximising the idea without forcing the clichés that consumers have grown numb to,” she asserts. “We have to try to let creativity develop rather than impose a climate of censure and boundaries.”
Linda Kovarik’s CV
2007 Regional director of creative strategy and development, Coca-Cola Asia-Pacific
2004 Executive planning director, Beacon Communications, Tokyo, and global planning director, beautycare, Leo Burnett Worldwide
2002 Regional planning director, beautycare, Leo Burnett Asia-Pacific
2000 Associate planning director, Leo Burnett Greater China
1999 Strategic planner, Leo Burnett Greater China