The summit assault
Soft Drinks: Always Coca-Cola. From the valley to the summit. How the world's most powerful brand is active in ski resorts.
Soft drinks Always Coca-Cola. From the valley to the summit. How the world's most powerful brand is active in ski resorts. Coca-Cola is an iconic brand. It is the star among soft drinks. But it has a problem in winter. Warm drinks are in high demand then. Coke is too cool for consumers. For the freshwater strategists in Brüttisellen, however, seasonality is not an issue. They want to push the brand intensively despite the cold weather. Because this can only fail in the foggy lowlands, they head for the heights instead, for example to Davos. Coca-Cola has been advertising to consumers in ski resorts for three years. The mountain is calling. No one at Coca-Cola wants to say where. The locations are kept as secret as the Coke recipe itself. The reason: no unnecessary information for the competition. But the activities immediately catch the eye. Many ski resorts present themselves in red and white. Coca-Cola literally covered the idyllic winter sports resort of Davos with advertising this season. From the valley to the summit, the bold logo can be found everywhere. The sparkling message is always the same: Coke is lifestyle, Coke is cool, Coke is everywhere. No one can avoid Coke: guests sunbathe on red sun loungers. The table decorations are "light". The service staff is "zero". Entire buildings are designed like colorful wonder bags. Even the cable car is a Coke ambassador. The gondola is packaged as a cup, the athletes inside are the bottles.
Little criticism of advertisingThe advertising dominance in Davos is made possible by the Küblis company Smart Promotion. An agency that specializes in marketing ski resorts and brings advertising to the summit in the truest sense of the word. It has secured all marketing rights in Graubünden ski regions. In Davos, it holds the advertising space for chairs, gondolas and large cabins in addition to the classic billboards. With Smart Promotion, Coca-Cola could place advertising on 3500 m2 in Davos. However, this has not been the case to date. Six advertising partners shared the space this season. These include international brands such as Fiat, Nivea and Snickers.
Coca-Cola marketer Erik Amstad is very satisfied with the winter activation and the sales figures in ski resorts such as Davos and says: "This strategy is necessary. There is competition among beverage suppliers." He does not reveal any more. Rivella and Ovomaltine are Coca-Cola's toughest rivals.
According to Peter Spescha from Smart Promotion, Coca-Cola's measures have been well received by customers and consumers. "We are observing sympathy effects," says Spescha. Harsh criticism of the dominance of advertising only arises sporadically. Advertising revenue is necessary for ski resorts. If the lucrative advertising boost were to fail to materialize, the costly slope maintenance, for example, would simply not be financially viable. "Without snow cannons, no ski resort can do anything anymore," says Spescha. Today's guests are spoiled and expect good conditions and low prices at the same time.
Something else to think about: the more Coca-Cola a country drinks, the freer, healthier, wealthier and more educated its inhabitants are. This is what the renowned business magazine Economist claims to have discovered. The only question is whether advertising dominance really makes people freer and more educated.
Christian Lüscher
Little criticism of advertisingThe advertising dominance in Davos is made possible by the Küblis company Smart Promotion. An agency that specializes in marketing ski resorts and brings advertising to the summit in the truest sense of the word. It has secured all marketing rights in Graubünden ski regions. In Davos, it holds the advertising space for chairs, gondolas and large cabins in addition to the classic billboards. With Smart Promotion, Coca-Cola could place advertising on 3500 m2 in Davos. However, this has not been the case to date. Six advertising partners shared the space this season. These include international brands such as Fiat, Nivea and Snickers.
Coca-Cola marketer Erik Amstad is very satisfied with the winter activation and the sales figures in ski resorts such as Davos and says: "This strategy is necessary. There is competition among beverage suppliers." He does not reveal any more. Rivella and Ovomaltine are Coca-Cola's toughest rivals.
According to Peter Spescha from Smart Promotion, Coca-Cola's measures have been well received by customers and consumers. "We are observing sympathy effects," says Spescha. Harsh criticism of the dominance of advertising only arises sporadically. Advertising revenue is necessary for ski resorts. If the lucrative advertising boost were to fail to materialize, the costly slope maintenance, for example, would simply not be financially viable. "Without snow cannons, no ski resort can do anything anymore," says Spescha. Today's guests are spoiled and expect good conditions and low prices at the same time.
Something else to think about: the more Coca-Cola a country drinks, the freer, healthier, wealthier and more educated its inhabitants are. This is what the renowned business magazine Economist claims to have discovered. The only question is whether advertising dominance really makes people freer and more educated.
Christian Lüscher
