‘Tis the season and one brand that screams festivity is of course Coca-Cola. For many of us the famous Coca-Cola Trucks signify the start of Christmas, but Coca-Cola’s Christmas advertising journey began way back in the 1920’s. Coca-Cola, in fact gave us the Santa Claus that we all know and love today.

The Coca-Cola story began in 1896 when pharmacist John Pemberton first made up the mixture at Jacobs Pharmacy. The name Coca-Cola was written down by his bookkeeper Frank M Robinson, it was then that one of the worlds most recognisable trademarks was born. Here we look at Coca-Cola’s Christmas advertising journey and how it began…

Coca-Cola Santa

Santa has been appearing in Coca-Cola adverts in magazines since the 1920’s, it wasn’t until 1931 when illustrator Haddon Sundblom was commissioned to create an illustration of Santa, that the jolly, red-suited, white-bearded Santa Clause was born. Sundblom took inspiration from Clement Clark Moore’s poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas” (“’Twas the Night Before Christmas”), and it’s this image of Santa that we have all come to know and love today.

Sandblom created his final version of Santa in 1964 and since then, the Coca- Cola Santa image has been based on these original illustrations.

It’s often said that Santa wears a red coat because of Coca-Cola, but he had appeared in red, amongst other colours before Coca-Cola’s Santa illustrations were created.

The Coca-Cola Santa first appeared animated in 2001 in a TV advert and was based on Sandblom’s illustration.

Holidays are coming

It was in 1995 that the famous Coca-Cola trucks, first made their journey onto our TV screens. The iconic illuminated trucks appeared decorated with the image of Santa Claus on the side, driving in convoy through the snow. The theme song ‘Holidays Are Coming’ has also featured in their adverts since the 1990’s. For many of us the arrival of the Coca-Cola trucks signifies the start of Christmas. As well as appearing on our TV screens, the Coca-Cola trucks appear at 46 locations around the UK. The trucks annual Christmas tour is now underway and at each stop friends and family can have their photo’s taken with the trucks. Last year 50,000 official photo’s were taken with the truck.

Coca-Cola Facts

• The Coca-Cola bottle is 100 years old
• In the first year, just nine glasses of Coca-Cola were sold a day
• Coca-Cola was first sold for 5 cents per glass
• There are 1.9 billion servings of Coca-Cola Company products sold every day

Have you ever clicked on an internet search result to find the text is too small and you’re having to zoom in and out to read the content? It can be a little frustrating can’t it?

More and more people are now using mobile phones to view and search the web, so it’s a good idea to make sure your website is mobile friendly.

Your customers will find a mobile friendly site easy to use with little need for awkward rotating and zooming, allowing them to enjoy browsing, they’ll probably stay on your website longer too.
Did you know that if you’re website is mobile friendly and has mobile friendly pages, it is ranked higher in Google search results? You can check to see if your website is mobile friendly by entering your site at:

https://www.google.co.uk/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

We talked about responsive websites in our last edition, where the website will automatically adjust depending on the device you’re viewing it from, be it a laptop, tablet or mobile phone. All the websites we design and develop are now designed with future-proofing in mind, they are all responsive and mobile friendly.

If you’ve got a website you would like us to take a look at or are thinking of having a new website give us a call on 01226 771000, we’d be happy to offer our expert advice.

This is what John Wanamaker, one of the largest retail merchants in America in the late 1800’s once said…

I quoted this to my team when we were having a meeting on how to promote an upcoming exhibition for a client.

You see, we use a lot of different media to promote this event. And we test all these media – vigorously.

We asked every visitor when they come to the exhibition how they heard about it.

When a visitor downloads a ticket, they have to tell us how they got there.

We study our analytics, we can see which links are working and those that aren’t.

We use different direct dial numbers that are exclusive to specific ads.

We use different web links for specific promotions… The list goes on…

And after we’ve done all this – at best, like Mr Wanamaker – I know we’re still only 50% right. Should I be happy with 50%? Dam right I am.

Earlier this year we promoted a different exhibition and we added radio to our marketing mix – the results were there to see. Home run.

So now because of this “new media success” we are adding radio to promote this exhibition, but we haven’t taken anything else out – just trimmed here and there. Always testing, monitoring and tweaking.

Whenever developers change or modify their software, even a small tweak can have unexpected consequences. Automated regression testing is testing existing software applications to make sure that a change or addition hasn’t broken any existing functionality.

Are you doing the same with your marketing? Or do you just leave it to chance?
Times have changed, research into your business or your product can now be done, on the smart phone, anywhere. Buying decisions are now made long before a phone call to you is made or a visit to your store is done.

And whilst when asked, most customers will say to you “I found you on Google”
Remember this – unless you appear on page one of Google for the product you sell, or you are running a pay per click campaign, or there is another direct link to your site that you can measure and is directly accountable – something else got them there.

This is why perhaps that most traditional medias are often bypassed in favour of online medias and I can see why, online marketing allows you to monitor every single click, every like, every visit, there is a reason why people look for the best Los Angeles Facebook Ads Company. You can get a much more accurate feedback from online marketing and because you only “pay per click” and likes are “free” you may feel as though none of your marketing is being wasted.

If only that were true. Google Adwords has made it very easy for you to get visitors to your website, but at a cost and that cost is rising and if you want a good ROI (Return on Investment) you must constantly split test your account, research and fine tune. Do it well, build a good lead generator on your site, create a good follow up sequence and you can build a system using Adwords that will constantly bring you a stream of new customers on auto pilot. Also make complete utilization of backlinking services, and Facebook advertising because that is how customers find you half the time. You’ll know your numbers, you’ll know your conversion rate, but you’ll never be 50% right. You should also try to connect your Google My Business accounts and manage GMB properties from one dashboard as suggected at www.localviking.com/schedule-google-posts.

No I’m afraid, getting your marketing right 100% of the time is something that people like me and you will strive to attain 100 years from now. But if you know, really know your market, develop a strong message, test different media and develop a system for converting enquiries into customers you’ll know your numbers, you’ll know your cost to acquire a customer (and there is always a cost). Then you’ll have a starting point on which to improve on. And if you’re looking to take your existing eCommerce business to the next level, you can read eCom babes reviews here.

The Promotional Union, create a national promotional product catalogue which features 1000’s of customisable promotional items from pens, mouse mats and cups to umbrella’s.

Work involves catalogue concept design, photographing products, photograph enhancement, and the layout of their annual 170 plus page product catalogue. The catalogue also has over 15 cover changes which are designed to each customers individual requirements.

Talurit UK, who develop, manufacture and market mechanical splicing systems for wire and wire rope fabricators, have just launched their all new Xona Division with a brand new product brochure.