He Shoots, He Scores!

If you are Canadian and you do one thing today, watch this ad. It gave me the shivers.

If you can’t view the video, click here.

It’s crazy how in the same category, Coke can get it so right and Pepsi got it so wrong (Pepsi). Coke’s strategy is rooted in an insight and an idea – Canadians are living to see their teams win gold in Olympic hockey. Pepsi got swept up in the craze of “consumer generated content” and executing around an idea that attempted to get people involved with their brand. They held a contest to try and come up with a new cheer for Team Canada hockey.

There were two problems with this strategy. The first is that we didn’t need a new cheer. Especially one sponsored by a brand. The second is that the cheer sucked. “Eh, Oh Canada Go”.

Pepsi spent too much time on trying to execute a campaign with lots of consumer involvement. But they forgot a key component … does it make sense? I’m sure there was at least one meeting when someone was thinking “This is a stupid idea. Do we really need a new cheer? Why would they choose our cheer over the one that already exists?”

Coke kept it simple. Put something on TV that inspires people and get your brand associated with that feeling.

Sometimes we get so excited about executing the latest marketing trends that we forget to ask if we have a good idea. Sometimes it’s okay to do what’s been done before. Just do it well.

But enough ranting. I’m going to watch the Coke ad again and dream of gold.

- Christian