The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2011–2016
Coca-Cola prints 150 first names on bottles — 'Share a Coke' wins back young Australians
Coke Australia puts 150 popular first names on packs to reconnect with 18–25s — young-adult consumption up 7%, Facebook traffic up 870%.
Coca-Cola Australia (The Coca-Cola Company)
What it had to solve
In 2011 half of Australian teens and young adults had never tasted Coke; the sparkling category was shrinking and the brand felt distant to 18–25s.
How it works
In August 2011, Coca-Cola Australia faced a generation gap: half of Australian teens and young adults had never tasted Coke, and the sparkling drinks category was in decline. The brand had to make itself relevant to 18–25s who saw it as their parents' drink.
The idea was mass personalization. Ogilvy Sydney printed 150 of the most popular Australian first names on Coke bottles and cans, backed by a TVC, billboards, custom-can kiosks and a #ShareACoke social push. Finding your name — or a friend's — turned a commodity bottle into something personal enough to gift, photograph and share.
The numbers followed: young-adult consumption rose 7%, Facebook traffic jumped 870% with page likes up 39%, earned media reached over 12 million impressions, 76,000 virtual cans were shared and 378,000 custom cans printed, while transactions grew 3% and volume 4%. Coca-Cola then rolled the mechanic out in more than 80 countries.
Why it lands
- A name on the pack turns a commodity into something personal enough to gift, photograph and post.
- Consumers became the media: every shared bottle carried the brand into a private conversation.
- Limiting the list to 150 names created scarcity and a hunt — people searched shops for their own and friends' names.
- The platform scaled across cultures by swapping name lists, proving personalization was the idea, not the execution.
What it did
Young-adult consumption rose 7% and total volume 4% (transactions +3%); Facebook traffic jumped 870% with page likes +39%; the campaign earned 12M+ media impressions, 76,000 virtual cans shared and 378,000 custom cans printed.
What you can take
Mass personalization turns a commodity into a mirror: when the pack carries the consumer's own name, people advertise the brand to each other for free.
Since then
Share a Coke rolled out to more than 80 countries, each localizing the name list, and became one of the most awarded and imitated campaigns of the 2010s — its effectiveness documented in a WARC case study and an Effie Australia case history. Coca-Cola kept reviving the mechanic in summer activations for years, and the campaign is still taught as the benchmark for mass personalization and consumer-generated content.
Sources
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card