Coke Bottles Coming Back With More Names

“Share a Coke” promotion will return on May 1 with four times the amount of first names.

April 15, 2015

MCLEAN, Va. – USA Today reports that Coca-Cola is bringing back its wildly-successful "Share a Coke" promotion, featuring more first names front and center on the label.  The promotion, beginning May 1 and running throughout the summer, is featuring first names on hundreds of millions of 20-ounce bottles of Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coke Zero.

"We saw an incredible amount of self-expression last year with Share a Coke," Evan Holod, Coca-Cola brand director, told the news source.

When the promotion first began to spread last year, Share a Coke was the top global trending topic on July 29. For this year’s campaign, Coca-Cola hopes young consumers “will flood social media with images of themselves drinking Coca-Cola beverages with their names imprinted across the labels,” notes the news source.

Coca-Cola posted its largest-ever year-over-year growth in the 20-ounce package — more than 19% —which may explain why the company is quadrupling the size of its promotion from 250 first names to 1,000. Also, for the first time, U.S residents will be able to customize and purchase Share a Coke bottles online. Eight-ounce glass bottles with personalized labels will sell for $5 each, with free shipping for purchases of five or more bottles.

The best-selling Coca-Cola bottle name in 2014 was Chris. This year, Coca-Cola expects best-sellers to be Michael and Jessica.

One brand expert says that Coke's got this promotion right. "This fits perfectly with young people's desire both to be unique and to be part of the crowd," brand consultant Tracey Riese told USA Today. "Personalizing Coke — making an iconic brand all about us — is sort of the ultimate selfie."

The Share a Coke program was first introduced in Australia the summer of 2011-12 and has expanded to more than 80 countries around the world, including New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Great Britain, Turkey, Germany, Spain and Chile.

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