Coca-ColaSmartPour™

The Multiplatform Marketing Communications module ran in two parts. In a group, we created a Big Idea for Coca-Cola. Then each of us had to pitch our own campaign for it, as if to the brand's owner — a recorded video presentation of 15 to 20 minutes, worth 75% of the module.

The pitch had to cover a creative brief, situational analysis, segmentation and targeting, SMART objectives, a hyper-personalised customer journey, an omnichannel strategy, forecasts, testing, KPIs, GDPR and a communications plan.

To be precise about what was mine: SmartPour™ came out of the group project. My half of it was the AI machine itself. The companion app was a groupmate's idea, and the emotional hooks and targeting came from the group project. The campaign on this page — the idea, the settings and the channel plan — is my individual pitch.

We wanted to focus only on the machine, so we researched what people dislike about vending — queues, ordering the same thing over and over, no personalisation, and hygiene.

My idea was a vending machine you can talk to. It senses your movements and pays as much attention to filling a cup as a person would. I saw it as a spectacle people would want to try, and something that would build Coca-Cola's brand awareness on its own.

I argued against the app. Vending is a simple, universal transaction, and an extra step could make it frustrating. The AI felt like enough. Our professor asked us to keep the app, so it stayed in the pitch, but my campaign leads with the machine.

In high-pressure places, people run on routine and tune out advertising. Getting a drink from a vending machine is one of those routines, and the machines have barely changed since they were invented.

So the campaign is guerrilla marketing. Put the machine where you'd never expect one, and it interrupts the routine and sparks curiosity. The product becomes the media. I had campaigns like McDonald's fry billboard in mind — the surprise does the work.

Speed and personalisation mattered, but I chose to lead with the innovation, because I think that's what Coca-Cola's audience would find most appealing. A twelve-year-old would rather know he can talk to the machine and tell it what he wants than hear that it personalises his drink.

I chose three settings for three kinds of pressure. Universities are high in cognitive load, underground stations are time-critical, and gyms are habitual and goal-driven. Each puts the machine in front of people at the moment they need a drink.

The group gave SmartPour™ four emotional hooks — Relief, Confidence, Recognition and Reward. My campaign leans on Recognition and Reward, the ones the machine itself delivers. Relief and Confidence would suit a separate campaign for the app.

The situational analysis and the customer journey shaped the creative most. The analysis confirmed what people were unhappy about, and the journey showed me where the guerrilla placements would hit hardest.

Each channel has one job. Digital out-of-home builds awareness, the machine drives engagement, social media converts, and the app keeps people coming back.

The rest of the pitch makes the idea accountable. Forecasts tie back to each objective, an A/B test compares two messages — "Pour. Don't wait." and "Skip the queue" — and every personalised feature is checked against GDPR and PECR.