Coke’s PR activity for London 2012 starts early, with its Future Flames campaign, featuring concerts and consumer engagement, with a link to the Torch Relay of the Olympic flame.
When sponsors pay big bucks for the rights to a sports event, they like to get some pre-event assets as part of their contractual package. This gives them more to work with than a logo or a marque. It gives them the opportunity to create unique experiences as the excitement builds towards the main event.
PR spikes on relay route
Coca-Cola’s relationship with The Olympics Torch Relay is a great example of this. Even though we are still more than a year away from London 2012, residents in towns and countries up and down the UK are already checking to see if the Torch Relay route is passing near to where they live. If Coke is creative, it will be able to create numerous PR spikes off the back of this interest.
Future Flames
Indeed, the first of many planned PR spikes came last week when Dizzee Rascal and Eilza Doolittle gave a special concert to launch Coca-Cola's nomination campaign Future Flames - a nationwide search for ‘Best of British’ youth to carry the Olympic Flame. Held at Westfield London, the concert was hosted by Dave Berry of Capital FM and featured performances from Rascal, Doolittle and You And Me At Six. There were also appearances from London 2012 hopefuls such as wheelchair basketball player Clare Strange.
Passion for Torch Bearers
Essentially, Future Flames is about rewarding positive contributions made by 12-24 year-olds - by giving them the opportunity to be Torch Bearers when the Olympic Flame goes on its 70-day journey around Britain. To nominate someone, people need to go to www.cokezone.co.uk before the September 9 deadline, provide the name of their candidate, explain what they have a passion for, how others benefit from their passion and what that person hopes to do with their passion in the future.
Celebrating young people
Explaining the rationale, James Quincey, President of Northwest Europe and Nordics at The Coca-Cola Company, said: “Every day young people do great things in their communities, going the extra mile and using their interests and passions for sport, music, dance and the environment to make a difference to others. I'm delighted that through our Future Flames campaign, Coca-Cola is able to recognise, reward and celebrate the young people who spread happiness and make Britain burn brighter. I hope everyone in the UK nominates the Future Flames they know and celebrates the positive contributions they make towards their communities."
A positive difference
Clearly Coke is hoping to use the Relay to whip up some kind of X Factor excitement. And it’s chosen a potent ambassador in Dizzee Rascal, whose journey to the top has been all about the ability of mentors to recognise and nurture talent. Speaking at the launch, Rascal set the emotional tone for the campaign when he said: “I see young people judged all the time and there's negativity about them. People should look at the reality and see that many young people are making a positive difference but no one hears about it. We can change that by nominating the Future Flames we know.”
Regional PR opportunities
The Westfield concert made quite an impact in the media – and it’s only the start. In order to squeeze every last drop of exposure out of the Relay, Coke is planning a national Torch Tour this summer to encourage people to nominate Future Flames in their vicinity. That equates to a bunch of regional PR opportunities long before the Relay actually begins next May. In between, expect a steady drip of human interest stories surrounding the bearers - as well as a run of promos and giveaways and social media activity.
Coke thinks months ahead
What’s really clever about Coke’s approach is that the Torch Relay strategy dovetails neatly with the work that the brand does in the run up to The FIFA World Cup. In that case, Coke attaches its name to the World Cup Trophy Tour months ahead of the event itself.
Impressive PR platform
Here’s how Coke summed up that piece of work last May (ie the month before the 2010 South Africa World Cup started); “Before a ball is kicked, the tournament’s 18-carat gold trophy has already undertaken its biggest ever global tour. Travelling 151,217km, over 225 days crossing five continents and touching the lives of more than 500,000, the FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour by Coca-Cola has now touched down in South Africa for a final tour of the host nation. Commencing eight months ago on 21 September 2009, from the home of FIFA in Zurich, the tour has undertaken its most ambitious and exciting journey to date, making history along the way by visiting 50 African cities. FIFA World Cup winners including Pele, Lothar Matthaus, and Christian Karembeu have shared in the Trophy Tour experience along with fans. Welcoming the magic of the FIFA World Cup to their countries, 44 heads of state have made time in their schedules to greet the Trophy’s arrival.” That is a pretty impressive platform for delivering a PR strategy.