Coke to spend about $13 mln on Super Bowl, Oscars

By Anupama Chandrasekaran Fri Jan 20, 6:17 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Coca-Cola Co. said on Friday it would spend about $13 million for commercials on the Super Bowl and the Oscar this year, the first time in years the company plans to advertise on the two most-watched U.S. television events.

The world's biggest soft drink company will sponsor the kickoff show, the final pregame segment. The actual football championship game will include a total of about two minutes of rival PepsiCo Inc.'s ads.

Coke, which has stayed away from U.S. television's most watched and expensive event for eight years, will showcase two 15-second commercials and a 60-second commercial for its Full Throttle energy drink. The Super Bowl ads will be the first television advertisements for Full Throttle.

The beverage company will also be advertising its Vault carbonated energy drink before the game through two 30-second commercials, bringing its ad spend for the Super Bowl to about $3.5 million.

"This is the ultimate guy event and with us having two guy-focused brands that we didn't have before, it was a great fit," said Coke spokeswoman Susan McDermott.

GETTING ON THE RED CARPET

After football's Super Bowl, the Oscars are U.S. television's second most-watched event and a growing number of advertisers are using the venue as a place to launch new marketing campaigns.

PepsiCo, which had been the exclusive drink sponsor for seven years, turned down the chance to sponsor the star-studded event this year.

"It is a great event but it is just one night," said PepsiCo's spokeswoman Nicole Bradley. "We are looking for events that help us execute marketing over a longer period of time."

So after a 7-year hiatus, Coke got a chance to make its Oscar advertising entry once again.

"When we left the Oscars seven years ago we had never written off being associated again with the Oscars," Coke's McDermott said. "We are looking more at entertainment lifestyle marketing as the way we market Diet Coke."

On March 5, Coke plans to air six 30-second commercials during the Oscars and one ad right before with total ad spend coming close to $10 million. The bulk of the commercials will be for Diet Coke.

The company has a two-year advertising contract with broadcaster ABC for Hollywood's big night. ABC is a unit of Walt Disney Co. and is also broadcasting the Super Bowl on February 5.

The soft drink maker's ad blitz comes close on the heels of its December investor meeting, when Coke announced a slew of innovations and packaging along with a new marketing slogan that Chief Executive Neville Isdell said would help drive volume and profit growth.

The new advertising slogan, "Welcome to the Coke Side of Life," will include variations like "Chill on the Coke Side of Life," Coke marketing chief Mary Minnick said during the meeting.

(Reuters)