To prompt reconsideration among Pepsi drinkers and instill the belief Coca-Cola understands Thai youth the best. To strengthen the consumer brand associations with two Thai passions; Local Music & Premier League Soccer. Ultimately, succeed at two communication challenges, a) announce Coca-Cola Super Match with Liverpool as the most exciting and relevant football fixture for Thai fans (ahead of Pepsi’s fixture with Man Utd). b) Strengthen the consumer’s preference for Coca-Cola using a popular Thai celebrity to endorse the product.Consequently media would need to effectively target the ‘Pepsi drinker’ with the ‘right communication’; In other words zero in on;Pepsi drinkers who liked football.Pepsi drinkers who liked locally produced pop music.Our media goal was to;Overwhelm Pepsi advertising share of voice in the areas of highest concentration of Cola drinkers, ie Bangkok, but specifically key vicinities within the capital.Maximise the communication value of every media exposure.

The Inter-Media Decision: The target epicentre was Bangkok, however TV is a nationwide medium (with no split transmissions) and while local radio had a role to play, was considered too weak in the delivering strong iconic communications requirements of the Music Celebrity & Liverpool football. Outdoor had traditionally fallen short of expectations insofar as it could become stale quickly and lacked the kind of targeting accountability required to deliver our set goals.

The Approach: Universal McCann set about creating a more pervasive on-street presence. The question was, could outdoor media effectively create an on-street presence with the core target of soccer & music fans?Furthermore if outdoor could effectively penetrate soccer and music fans, how could flexible copy rotation be achieved to maximize reach, a key criteria setout by the Coca Cola Company?The first breakthrough was achieved from conducting proprietary consumer media research we call; Media In Mind. This study holds host to lifestyle and product consumption information that enabled the media planner to uncover the districts in Bangkok where soccer & music fans were most likely to be located. With the help of Client research, we constructed a cross tabulation of cola drinkers, their locality and propensity to actively follow either music or football.Once the key localities had been identified a review of outdoor availabilities and costs encouraged a recommendation to develop a host of new locations within the districts. UM collaborated with an outdoor supplier to develop new outdoor locations on these key routes.

This also led to breakthrough number two – Copy Rotation Flexibility. (CRF) To effectively maximise the number of unique exposures against each copy treatment by avoiding stagnation Universal McCann identified a unique media solution. This entailed erecting static frames (12 units in total), standardised in a dominant 10m x 15 m format and positioned at each location. An unconventional approach to the production of creative, posted on moveable panels that slotted into the structures, allowed executions to be moved from location to location. This proved an enormously effective method of minimising wearout and maximising copy communication reach.The Result: Continuous tracking of brand awareness attributes confirmed the Brand was successful in being able to capture perceptual ground that ‘Coca-Cola was the drink for ‘Thai soccer & music fans’.

Entries to the Coca-Cola SuperCup Promotion linked to the football fixture were greatest from within the targeted areas. This is where the competition winner was found. Moreover, off-take and share gains showed tremendous improvement in the vicinities of the moveable signage.

Endorsements:In a follow up letter to the Agency & Client, the supplier wrote, ‘since finalising the campaign our sales staff have been repeatedly asked by existing customers why we did not initiate the copy rotation technique for them. Unfortunately, we have to answer; we did not think of it first’.The Campaign In Brief: Forge a stronger emotional bond between Thai cola consumers and Brand Coca-Cola by capitilising upon the two resonant lifestyle interests;Local pop sensation Kateela McKintoshLiverpool Football Team Insights Into Actions:No consumer data existed on the Cola drinker and their relationship with outdoor – Develop a proprietary approach.

Pepsi drinker density varies by vicinity in Bangkok – Conquest volume by penetrating these strongholds.Outdoor is ostensibly a frequency building medium – Manufacture a way of maximising communication reach.

Strategy & Implementation:UM identified the areas of highest Pepsi drinker concentration (as well as weak Coca-Cola drinker presence) and proceeded to map the dominant consumer interests by area (Football on one axis, Pop Music on the other). This paved the way for us to position creative to ‘talk to’ consumer interests within each area.Tender the opportunity to erect new billboard sites that would accept moveable back panels.Erect the right message in the right location directed at the source of business – Pepsi drinkers. Results:Coca-Cola Brand equities as well shares in the vicinities improved.Coca-Cola SuperCup with Liverpool was a sellout – the winner of the consumer promotionoriginated from the area with the billboard campaign presence.Awareness of Kateela McKintosh as a presenter for Coca-Cola is highest within these vicinities. Universal McCann Thailand was the architect of this unique strategy to match consumers with affinity messages. The local media team was responsible for each and every one of the following breakthroughs:Uncovering new consumer insights.Creating media led message management solutions, and working collaboratively with the creative team to ensure we took advantage of the new solution.Developing a bespoke network of new billboard locations.Leading the development of new production techniques & practice in the Thai market. It’s more than billboards. It’s billboards with a twist. The idea of switching copy in and out of fixed frames was supremely practical and uniquely effective at boosting copy reach.Project ‘Outdoor In-Sight’ set a new precedent in Thailand’s outdoor market. In short, it has set about changes within the industry.The significance of this outdoor project is evident from the legacies that it leaves. Namely;Formation of more than 4 new local outdoor suppliers who have subsequently established themselves to meet the growing demand for moveable billboard signage (CRF Process).New (and as yet unsurpassed) standard in outdoor research which has resulted in more of our Clients investing in outdoor and managing sophisticated rotations of copy.Outdoor In Sight owes it’s uniqueness to a core media team who learned what they did not know and moreover created what they did not have. However, Outdoor In-Sight should not be a winner simply because it overcame the traditional confines of the outdoor medium, that it captured the strategic high-ground, nor even because it succeeded at achieving the Client’s objectives – More critically it is a clear demonstration of how a media team added value to creative and at the same time advanced industry practice areas.

Universal McCann Thailand was the architect of this unique strategy to match consumers with affinity messages. The local media team was responsible for each and every one of the following breakthroughs:Uncovering new consumer insights.Creating media led message management solutions, and working collaboratively with the creative team to ensure we took advantage of the new solution.Developing a bespoke network of new billboard locations.Leading the development of new production techniques & practice in the Thai market.