Case History

RC Cola it just tastes better

product
RC Cola is the worlds third international cola brand, owned now
by Cott Beverages and sold in 62 countries, including Czech
Republic and Slovakia.

From 1992 to 1997 the product was distributed on the Czech

market by Pivovary Bohemia, but failed and was seen as evidence

that there was no room for a third international cola in the market.

In 2002 RC Cola was re-introduced to the CR by Kofola (then

Santa Napoje) with very limited support. Results were poor and
seemed to be confirming the failure of the 90s.

Kofola decided to give the brand a last chance. It was clear that

success could only come from a thorough and developed

strategic programme, backed by strong creative work. BI Praha
/ Red Cell (then Bates) was appointed as agency in December
2002

market
The cola sector accounted for 38% of Carbonated Soft Drinks (CSD)
by value and has been stagnating for a while.

Coca Cola Classic has c. 18%, Pepsi Cola around 11% and Kofolas

local brand about 16%, while Private Label had about 14%. RC Cola
had 0.3%!

Coke and Pepsi dominated the consumer mind by massively

outspending all competition.

Kofola decided early that in order to have any margin with which to

compete successfully, RC Cola ad to be able to satnd in the

premium sector and command a premium price. The product was
aimed just below Coke and Pepsi but considerably above Kofola and
private labels.

creative dilemma
We knew that against the massive spends of Coke and Pepsi we had
to achieve cut through

BUT we had to be perceived alongside Coke and Pepsi (with the

same US heritage) to justify our international premium positioning.

Our problem was how to be

the same and yet different?

strategic solution
We observed that all Coke and Pepsi advertising is very much the

same happy ending advertising. It almost looked to us as if they

were promising that if you drank their cola, you would lead a better
life, be more healthy, be successful and sports and even have a
great sex life!

We decided to acknowledge the sameness of that style of

advertising and at the same time appeal to a target market that

would reject its mass over promising. (Consumer insight: our

consumer has outgrown traditional cola advertising)

Primary TA

A young, educated and advertising literate consumer, acknowledging that they like

advertising but refuse to be taken in by it. We created a psychographic segment that still
allowed the numbers of people to give us the critical mass essential to establishing the
brand safely

creative idea
Making gentle mockery of our competitors styles of

advertising we set up tests to see whether the brands

delivered on their promises. So we tested RC Cola
versus Brands A and B to see if they enhanced sports
success or added sex appeal. Not surprisingly, none of
the brands did but the taste of RC Cola was liked.

Executionally it was important that the brand was seen as

American, so we deliberately made totally original
commercials look as if they were adaptations from US
originals.

media plan and executions

The necessity to compete with

Coke and Pepsi meant that we

had to use TV. Two executions
were shown during the
campaign

Cinema was used as a support

medium, closely targeted at
our primary TA

CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO

WATCH THE COMMERCIALS

Sex Appeal TV spot 30

summary
After the first burst of the campaign, RC Cola had
achieved cut through.

Total brand awareness rose to 74% from 31%

Trial rose from 22% to 51%
Brand attributes shifted positively in all desired

dimensions (e.g. modern, original, a brand for me)

Share jumped to 3.7%, while both competitors lost

share.

what happened next

Pepsi reacted with aggressive price
cutting (0.5 l for free) while Coke
launced a massively supported Chi
hua hua promotion

RC Cola had to react without

becoming a cheap brand. We

launched a retail promotion
offering a Puma (referential brand)
T shirt. Budget did not allow for
main stream advertising, so we
launched an e-mail based viral
campign, using an even cheekier
commercial. The promotion
achieved 132% of target

CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO WATCH

THE VIRAL COMMERCIAL

Since the success of the RC Cola campaign,

BI Praha / Red Cell has been appointed
to two more of Kofolas brands, Jupik
and Frupper