Comments on: Finally, A Branded Facebook App That Does Not Make Me Hate Facebook

By: adam

adam — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:57:36 +0000

I suppose that would be a different type of CokeTag

By: Mica

Mica — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:47:58 +0000

CokeTag – For real? That sounds like something interactive marketing execs might get themselves involved in at 3am at Mars Bar.

By: Designing is knowing when to stop…designing | More, Better Clicks

Designing is knowing when to stop…designing | More, Better Clicks — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:49:55 +0000

[...] useful, and not something that feels like advertising.” Yes, that was the entire point!! And from A Media Circus—“I like the fact that they saw consumer value as the most important component in the creation [...]

By: adam

adam — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:45:36 +0000

Michael

Again, I don’t think it has anything to do with cascading links. That is merely the technology that is powering the effort.

The cascading links are powering social connections between people, and this I feel is how the brand is making itself relevant to consumers.

By: csven

csven — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:25:58 +0000

Not surprised as a result of their previous R&D efforts, and my own experience regarding “Coke’s thinking” in how they approached and responded to Second Life trademark issues (ref: http://blog.rebang.com/?p=1335 ).

By: Michael Cohn

Michael Cohn — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:11:44 +0000

Indeed, Coke is just sugar water, but as you say, it’s a lifestyle brand. In other words, they’ve spent billions of dollars to make sure that, in the mind of the consumer, they are associated with some things other than sugar water. Do cascading links really have anything to do with all that branding they’ve done before? I guess you can come up with some connection, but let’s just agree that you’d be reaching. They obviously haven’t thought it through in that sense, and I think this would be a lot more interesting if they had.

By: adam

adam — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:57:49 +0000

Michael

I do agree that Coke (and Linkstorm) are not breaking new technological ground. I also agree that someone else can easily come along and duplicate this effort; but that is true of just about any app.

What I am really impressed with here is Coke’s thinking. I like the fact that they saw consumer value as the most important component in the creation of this app, and understood that brand association would come as a result of this value.

As for the relationship between this effort and Coke’s brand identity; I am not sure that there need be hyper relevance. After all, Coke is sugar water. What type of App could they create that would make sense for Coke? Coke is in certain ways a lifestyle brand and in this execution they are seeking to be part of the social fabric that ties people together.

I love your comments Michael, but I still think Coke did a great job with this

Time will tell whether consumers adopt this app, and that is something that I am not certain of.

By: Michael Cohn

Michael Cohn — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:37:17 +0000

Really, these are just cascading links. It’s not something that you need Coke for, and it won’t be long before someone else provides a similar app that gives you the same features but doesn’t make you feel like a corporate tool by looking at the Coke logo every time you use it. There is nothing about Coke that has anything to do with this application, so the relationship feels forced.

By: Nexeus Fatale

Nexeus Fatale — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:36:59 +0000

While I’m not surprised Coke is doing this, I am however curious as to why… there’s a lot of information that’s passed from Facebook to the application developers. Add that with the amount of tagging information that you hand Coke and for companies its a great way to get demographic information. For privacy concerns however, that’s a different story.

By: adam

adam — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:53:14 +0000

Csven

Out of curiosity, why do you say you are not surprised it is Coke?