Share a Coke
The very popular "Share a Coke" campaign has officially come to the US! Last year our VP of Manufacturing visited
HP Indigo's headquarters and learned all about the project that was sweeping Europe. This campaign encourages consumers to find their friend's name on a label and share it with them.
Now in US stores you can find Coke products with a unique name or saying instead of the traditional Coca-Cola logo. This campaign not only promotes personalization but it also encourages customers to engage with the brand by sharing a Tweet with a hashtag
#ShareaCoke.
How did they choose these names?
The campaign is primarily targeting Millennial consumers who look for personalization in brands. Coca-Cola selected hundreds of the top names of Millenials for their labels. If your friend's name isn't included in this list, don't worry, they also created labels that say "Friend", "Star", and "Bestie" for millions of Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero and Diet Coca-Cola bottles. Have you seen your name or a friend's on a label? Search for your name at the
Share A Coke website.
HP Indigo Digital Printing Technology
This campaign would not be possible without
digital print technology. To complete a project like this, Coca-Cola had the labels printed using several HP Indigo WS6000 digital presses.
Here's why:
On Press Variable Printing The biggest aspect of this project is printing a large amount of SKUs or label versions. Typically a label project might have a
family of a few flavors. That alone can be a challenge to print so imagine over 100 SKUs making up 800 million labels!
No Plates Required
If these were printed in a traditional method a plate would be required for each unique label. And every time the press would need to switch plates additional time, labor and cost would be required to complete the job. The digital press can easily switch from one name to the next without stopping the press.
Color Consistency Color consistency is crucial for a project of this size. If the red doesn't come out "Coca-Cola red" each time it will be noticeable on the store shelf. We work with many
food brands that require consistency for their digital labels and this is easily achieved on our HP Indigo presses.
One Shot Printing
With digital printing the entire image is printed in one shot. This means the label goes through one station to get the entire image rather than run through a long press that includes several ink stations. The HP Indigo process of printing all the colors on a blanket and then printing the image in one shot yields perfect color-to-color registration. No color trapping is required, allowing a clean crisp print job.
More Options
As you can see, using the HP Indigo press gives your company the flexibility to easily print variable data on your labels for personalization or other creative purposes. Coca-Cola used this feature to build brand loyalty with a younger generation of consumers while having a little fun along the way!