Keeping It Real

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Keeping It Real

Nu Classic Soul — and cable TV — provide a bridge to African American young people in new Coca Cola campaign

In the epic battles of the cola wars, The Coca-Cola Co. has been scoring some significant victories. Last year, the market leader boosted its share of the $62.9 billion soft drink market, despite being outspent in both radio and TV advertising by rival Pepsi. This year, the company has rolled out a huge new multimedia campaign, Coca-Cola Real, aimed at cementing the loyalty of consumers.

As always, teens and young adults are a key target for the campaign. To win over this crowd, cool credentials are critical, and to establish them, Coke relies in part on a hip campaign targeting African Americans.

"African-American teens and young adults are gatekeepers for trends in our culture," explains Hussein Warmack, brand manager for the Coca-Cola Classic Brand Business Unit in Atlanta. "As a target audience, they represent a great opportunity to entrench ourselves as a forward-thinking brand."

To reach out to this segment, the company wanted a music-centered campaign that would fit within its Coca Cola Real platform. It found the perfect faces, and voices, in the Nu Classic Soul movement.

Angie Stone performing in commercials

"We picked this genre because the artists are real people," Warmack says. "People identify with them and like them. They're non-Hollywood types."

Nu Classic Soul artists write their own songs, sing their own lyrics and create their own visual style. They are the antithesis, in other words, of the pre-packaged bands that reign in pop music today. Coke uses a mix of established and up-and-coming talent to get its message across.

In the newest flight of commercials, which began airing in February, Nu Classic Soul artists share the screen in three spots aimed at younger African-American and Hispanic viewers aged 16 to 36. Featured artists include Angie Stone, Musiq, Amel Larrieux, Questlove, Scratch, Donnie and Aaries, as well as Mike Thompson, a visual artist for the Ecko clothing line.

Because Nu Classic Soul artists tend to collaborate with one another, they embody a sense of unity Coke wants to celebrate in its campaign. "It's all about each artist supporting one another," he says. "They realize that if they work together, the entire genre will grow and be successful."

When it came time to find the ideal venue to share this message, Hussein says it was never a question that cable would play an integral role. "Cable has been a godsend," he says. "With cable television, you're really able to segment your target so much more tightly."

Coke found its target audience on BET and MTV. On BET, "106 & Park," a "TRL"-like live show featuring video requests and live performances, has been a particularly important media buy.

The spots began running in music's critical season between the Grammy Awards and the Soul Train Awards. Backing them up are a fully integrated campaign that also includes online, radio and print ads in Vibe, Essence, Honey, Source, Ebony and Jet.

Nu Classic Soul Artists, Amel, Scratch, Musiq, Donnie and Angie, who write their own music, fit perfectly in the Coca Cola Real Campaign

On the Internet, web users can see Nu Classic Soul videos by the Coke-featured artists and they can get histories of the artists and the movement at www.cokemusic.com.

To further promote the new campaign, Coke also sponsored Nu Classic Soul Advertising Launch events in Los Angeles on February 28 and New York on March 12 featuring live, candlelit performances by the six artists from the commercials. Coke may expand the lounge performances across the nation later this year, Hussein says.

The spots themselves build on a Neo Classic Soul campaign that Coke launched last year. They evoke an intimate feeling, set in loft spaces and homes. One spot, "Session," features artists including Musiq, Angie Stone and Amel Larrieux drinking Coke and hanging around together in a loft. As Musiq begins to sing, "Real Compared To What," the other artists join in, beatboxing, harmonizing and singing a cappella in a cipher, a kind of freestyling music get-together popular in the Nu Classic Soul movement. The words "Cipher. Real" close the spot in a silent super.

On the set of "Session"

Another spot, "Inspiration," is more visual in nature, as artist Mike Thompson works in a loft against a blank canvas using spray paint cans in the mode of a graffiti artist. Finishing the painting (and a Coke), he asks, "What do you think?" Viewers realize he has been making a kind of family portrait of Nu Classic Soul artists including Angie Stone, Questlove, Scratch and Musiq. As the musicians and Thompson drink their Cokes, the phrase, "Family Portrait Real." ends the commercial.

Coke's emphasis on young African Americans could pay dividends that go well beyond establishing a cool image, says Willis Smith, president and CEO of W.G. Smith & Associates, a market research company in Research Triangle Park, N.C. "As a proportion of the African-American population, the youth segment is the largest and probably will be for the next 10 years," Smith says, noting that they constituted slightly over 16 percent of the general population in the 2000 Census. "Coke is going with a market segment that's growing in size and influences the broader culture."

"With cable television, you're really able to segment your target so much more tightly."

— Hussein Warmack, brand manager, Coca-Cola Classic Brand Business Unit

The soft drink giant's use of cable as a key advertising outlet is also well placed. Among African Americans, cable households tend to index higher in cola purchases than in the public at large, according to MRI's 2002 Doublebase survey. During the past four years, Coca-Cola has doubled the amount it spends on cable, reaching an outlay of more than $22 million in 2001, the most recent for which full-year figures are available.

"Cable offers so many benefits: segmentation and the viewership for cable is phenomenal and increasing every day," Warmack says. "You have to use cable. You just can't reach your major consumers right now just by going with the major three broadcast networks."

Reprinted with the permission of Adweek Magazines.

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