Overview

Coca-Cola has an active web3 presence, and the brand is making a point to consolidate customer online experiences with their proprietary Coca-Cola app. The brand has a strong web2 presence, with philanthropy being a consistent theme with their Coca-Cola Give® portal. Sustainability, sports partnerships, and mental health awareness are three consistent themes through Coke’s brand style and storytelling.

Initiatives

Coca-Cola app (web2): Coca-Cola app is a customer loyalty program to ‘unlock refreshing surprises and redeem rewards—all at your fingertips’. Customers primarily interact with Coke’s loyalty program through the Coca-Cola app for iOS/Android. Coca-Cola app offerings include scanning icons on Coca-Cola packaging to earn ‘rewards and access personalized experiences’. Customers can create their own custom beverage mixes via Coca-Cola Freestyle®, and can receive location-based rewards and offers at theaters and restaurants.

Coca-Cola Insiders Club: Insider’s Club was a box subscription service that Coca-Cola tested as a service from January 2021 to March 2021. Each box featured three new or limited edition products before they hit shelves nationwide. Swag, and ‘exclusive virtual experiences with a celebrity’ were included with every box each month. The membership was paid upfront, with a 3-month subscription costing $45 plus tax and included free shipping.

The Friendship Box NFT: The Friendship Box NFT is Coca-Cola’s first foray into NFT web3 culture. On July 30th, 2021, four unique Coca-Cola NFTs were up for auction as a single ‘loot box’, for sale on Opensea.io. All proceeds for the sale went to Special Olympics International, a longtime partner of Coca-Cola. Auctioned as one lot, the collection features multi-sensory NFTs housed inside a ‘Friendship Box’. Coca-Cola’s Josh Schwarber explains, “The metaverse—which is borderless and ‘geo-less’—creates opportunities to connect with others like never before. We didn’t want to do this just to make an NFT. We wanted to inject the core principles of Coca-Cola and celebrate both our heritage and ties to friendship, while also doing something that hasn’t been done before.”

The Friendship Box acts as a dynamic loot box that contains the following:

• Physical: The winning bidder received a real-life SMEG FAB28 Coca-Cola fridge, stocked with ice-cold Coke.
• Digital: A custom-designed Coca-Cola Bubble jacket wearable, which included an unlockable version that can be worn in Decentraland. A Sound Visualizer NFT included the ‘unmistakable fizz of a Coke’ complete with visual effects. Lastly, ‘The Friendship Card’ refreshes 1948 artwork used in a set of Coca-Cola trading cards from the 1990s symbolizing friendship and refreshment. The metaverse-influenced iteration of the cards add motion, light and 3D features.

Coca-Cola Snow Globes: Coca-Cola partnered with VeVe (a popular digital collectable app) to release a collection of Christmas themed digital collectables. This drop included the classic Polar Bear, Coke Bottles, Neon Coca-Cola sign, and a singular Coke bottle. Each drop had a different list price, rarity level, and number of collectables available to purchase. VeVe is being used to simplify the process of purchasing and using NFTs.

Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Byte: Coca-Cola recently announced it is launching a gaming-inspired version of a virtual Coke beverage, surrounding the Coca-Cola Starlight release. The first video game it will be available in will be Fortnite. Coke has teamed up with gaming organization PWR to help with the creation of Pixel Point, a custom island built in Fortnite Creative. Fortnite Creative is a separate mode within Fortnite that allows companies and players to build their own custom worlds. Once players enter Pixel Point, they can try out coke-themed mini-games, as well as ‘try’ the new drink flavors.

The Coca-Cola Combo Burger Day Collection: This International Burger Day (May 28th), Coca-Cola dropped more than 4000 free, unique digital collectables celebrating the classic combination of an ice-cold Coca-Cola and a burger hot off the grill. Every Coca-Cola combo comes in a mysterious red bag and inside each bag you’ll find a generative burger with varying traits to satisfy every taste, and a classic bottle of Coca-Cola Zero that goes with every single one. This release was as floppy as a barely cooked burger, with virtually zero traction or interest from anyone.

Coca-Cola Pride Collection: The Coca-Cola Pride collection is a series of 136 digital collectibles made in celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community. The limited edition pieces feature an exclusive take on the iconic Coca-Cola bottle with artwork by Rich Mnisi, fashion designer and leading campaigner for LGBTQIA+ rights in South Africa. His commissioned design has been sliced into individual fragments and dispersed across all 136 collectibles, making each one unique. The collection aims to shine color-filled light on the LGBTQIA+ community's members and spread a message of Love. This collection was released on Polygon and currently has a low floor price and total volume.

POS System

Coca-Cola partnered with connectivity platform Omnivore to create a digital marketplace that makes it easier for customers to order Coke products through a Menu Management System (MMS) . MMS helps restaurant brands manage the complexity of numerous digital menus across online ordering, third-party apps, menu boards, kiosks, and more. MMS integrates the POS system, resulting in order injection, data collection, and control of content. This can allow for immediate pricing updates, deeper analytics, and easier surcharging.

USD is the only accepted currency on Coca-Cola’s website for US customers. Coca-Cola’s website allows for SSO via Google, Facebook, and Apple. The login for Coca-Cola’s website is the same as the app. Payment methods include traditional credit cards, Google Pay, and Paypal.

Accepted payment methods:
Visa
Mastercard
American Express
Discover
Paypal
Apple Pay
Google Pay

Discord Info

Coca-Cola does not have an official Discord server.

Tech Stack

Ethereum self-custody digital wallets
Opensea.io NFT store (customers pay with ETH)
Regular eCommerce payment portals
Medium social media presence (Instagram, Twitter, TikTok)
Dynamic websites, utilizing CSS, JSON, and React JS
Unknown how the iOS app was built or what tech it incorporates

NFT Stats (for Friendship Box)

ETH Contract: 0x455f04c9C54fFfa699e9F6b1271E857A1f2bDdfa
Blockchain: ETH
Token Standard: ERC-721
Creator Royalties: 10.0% (Creator/Coca-Cola gets paid 10% of sales on secondary market)

Metrics

Because of the lack of data available from Coca-Cola’s NFT launches, Opensea’s Price History was used in favor of Dune.xyz. These metrics are included below. The metrics for more recent collections were so unimpressive and low (sub 1ETH total volume) that making a dashboard for the collections seemed like a waste of time.

Secondary Market Analytics

(Secondary sales for Coca-Cola are the same as the original price of the only NFT sold traditionally on Opensea.io. The wallet that purchased the original Friendship Box NFT has not sold it yet.)

Current floor price: 217.4541 ETH
Top price: 217.4541 ETH
Average Price: 217.4541 ETH
Median Price: 217.4541 ETH

Past 7 Day Volume: 0
Past 24H Volume: 0
Past 7 Day Sales: 0 NFT Sales

Virtual/In-Person Events

• Coca-Cola has the World of Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta Georgia, showcasing the history of the company, as well as the Biedenharn Coca-Cola museum that serves as the original Coca-Cola bottling facility
• On International Friendship Day, Coca-Cola sponsored a ‘can-top’ party within Decentraland that was available for anyone, regardless of owning a particular NFT
• There have been no in-person events for NFT holders
• In 2022, Coca-Cola hopes to incorporate more digital experiences into their brand, with their ‘Coca-Cola Starlight’ digital collectables

Brand Analysis

Strengths

• Has begun to embrace web3 and NFTs, using the latter as a way to promote its philanthropic ideals
• Released two different NFT collections on two separate platforms (Opensea.io and VeVe), which garnered considerable hype online and generated more interest in NFTs from non-crypto consumers
• Hosted an event on Decentraland. Not NFT gated, but showing initiative and interest in the metaverse
• Is capitalizing on the nostalgic nature of the Coca-Cola brand, through NFTs and social media

Weaknesses

• Coke has made a greater effort than other soft drink brands to dabble in web3, but could be offering a lot more given the sheer breadth of the IP. Every single release has been a flop
• Needs a bigger tech team focused on NFTs and metaverse content to stay competitive and roll out new offerings quicker; Coke needs to stop releasing boring NFT collections
• There are little to no notable utilities associated with the NFTs offered, and the only notable NFT offered was sold at a price that is entirely unaffordable and unrealistic for the average consumer
• Little to no incorporation of the metaverse events or NFTs on the main website; no mention of web3 offerings on the Coca-Cola app
• IP is interested in web3 but at this point has invested very little and is cautious to invest more time and energy into the space

Opportunities

• Is easily one of the largest and most successful companies in the world, with a brand so recognizable it is hard to think of anything more cemented in American culture
• The first NFT launch was met with a ton of interest and bidding from ardent fans; Coca-Cola can recover from a poor launch in ways other brands cannot
• Digital brands are eager to partner with Coca-Cola, and the brand is being selective on how they proceed in the market

Threats

• The lack of a Coca-Cola Discord server means that any comparable competitor could beat them in the social media space just by appealing to younger audiences
• Other major soda brands could just as easily and quickly embrace web3. Nothing Coke has done is not replicable by other brands
• The success or failure of VeVe as the established and primary online platform for digital collectables could sway Coke from pursuing NFTs more seriously. VeVe was exploited in March of 2022, with the in-app token being acquired illegally by hackers. This has caused increased skepticism of the long-term viability of the VeVe platform
• Waiting for the right moment to embrace the metaverse more strongly just means another brand may take their place and gain popularity online-Repeated flops could turn long-term web3 investors away permanently

Summary

Coca-Cola is a legendary brand that is beginning to embrace web3 and finding unique ways to incorporate it into its brand IP. Although Coke has been slow to roll-out new NFT and metaverse offerings, previous releases have been well received by the public and have not induced backlash. Coca-Cola Combo Burger Day and LGBTQIA+ releases were to practically zero fanfare, with some of the lowest floor prices seen for a major brand (consequently also on Polygon). The Coca-Cola app shows no signs of incorporating cryptocurrency or NFTs anytime soon, which could mean that full adoption for the brand is some time away. It is difficult to derive the metrics from Coke’s VeVe release, given the closed nature of the platform. With a solid IP and impressive annual gross profit, Coke can take the time it needs to decide how best to proceed in the web3 market.

Social Media
https://www.instagram.com/cocacola/
https://www.tiktok.com/@cocacola
https://twitter.com/CocaCola

References
https://www.thedrum.com/news/2019/06/26/coca-cola-creates-digital-marketplace-make-ordering-easier
https://nftnew.net/2022/04/08/the-coca-cola-x-veve-partner-will-turn-the-starlight-flavor-into-nft/
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/omnivore-partners-with-coca-cola-to-launch-digital-menu-management-solution-300852719.html
https://medium.com/veve-collectibles/coca-cola-snow-globes-ddc7444b6789
https://maketafi.com/coca-cola-nft
https://etherscan.io/address/0x455f04c9c54fffa699e9f6b1271e857a1f2bddfa
https://www.ledgerinsights.com/coca-cola-nfts-pride/
https://opensea.io/collection/the-coca-cola-combo-burger-day-collection

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