Some basic elements were ignored in their current MyCoke Rewards promotions which they are also using AdWords to buy traffic to increase its audience, but are their promotional partners getting a full benefit?
Coke is one of the best advertisers in the world partly because of the strength of their brand but also because of the amount of money they pour into some of their advertising campaigns. But this is not one of those cases in respect to the digital webdesign budget as it seems some basic elements were ignored in their current MyCoke Rewards promotions which they are also using AdWords to buy traffic to increase its audience, but are their promotional partners getting a full benefit?
You are not eligible, please leave!
So while its not obvious until the second question, but when you select to register on the page now titled “Registration Eligibility” you are asked if you are a US resident. While this might be due to legal rules/regulations the problem is that a portion of the US population may not be residents but could still be suitable for the promotional partners just not the competition. If you elect the option to say not you are presented with a useless single line of text “we’re sorry… you’re not eligible to join My Coke Rewards.” shown in the screenshot below.
They could have easily re-enforced how unwelcome these visitors were, by adding a click here to close the browser window link…
Why not offer everyone something?
The problem with paying for traffic is that you are also paying to attract audience members who may not be eligible or suitable for your product/service so you need to consider how to best deal with that traffic and the above message is a massive fail on My Coke Rewards part. It took me maybe 5-10 mins by looking at the Coke Rewards partners hidden down at the bottom of the page to generate some basic ideas of the types of promotional messages My Coke Rewards could have easily added to the not eligible to join page shown below. The message about why they are not able to join is re-enforced but does offer those who cannot sign up something, so both the visitor gets benefit and the promotional partners get more exposure for being part of the program.
Suggested Coke partner promotional offers
The following advertising messages are based on their own current summer deals/offers available to anyone who visits their website but are slightly tweaked to be more suitable to My Coke Rewards.
- Delta Special Fare Sales – See more of the world for less
- Six Flags More Flags More Fun – Have more fun with a season pass
- Nike Free Run – freedom for your feet during summer
- Holiday Inn Hit it big – earn doulbe points all summer long
- Blockbuster Movies delivered – try it free this summer
You can see that this type of message both offers those who are not eligible for My Coke Rewards and advertisers who are paying to be associated with the promotional campaign, and only takes a matter of minutes to be setup. Advertisers get more exposure and are more likely to support the promotion as they can benefit from those who are a suitable audience for them to market to but might not be suitable for the My Coke Rewards promotion.
Failure to survey visitors
Another point is that Coke is now offering visitors a chance to provide feedback on the website, but ends up giving you a 15 min survey seriously if you want users to provide feedback make it quick and easy. I really wanted to provide feedback but didn’t want to leave demographic details, product consumption details and a blood sample, so if someone is really looking to provide feedback on the site to make it better and not have the survey turn into a marketing study you really need to look at something like Kampyle.