Globalspeak Blog
Phony Coca-Cola PSA Warning Implodes Social Sentiment
19 September 2011
During the past 12 months Coca-Cola has maintained an enviable high positive Net Sentiment. But when Localspeak’s NetBase social media analytics tool Workbench signaled an abrupt slide, we couldn’t help but take note: Coke’s Net Sentiment fell to -14% the week of July 13th compared to its previous week, plunging from a comfortable 61% just two weeks before. This precipitous fall was even more pronounced mid-to-end July, nose-diving to -32%.
While Coke’s share in buzz had vacillated only 1-3% since last year, July triggered a whopping +10,462% change in buzz relative to September 2010, with August still elevated at +10,387% until normalizing this month to the brand’s usual levels.
What was churning inside our NLP analytics engine? This question prompted us to take a peek under the hood, suspecting, perhaps, a critical reaction to Coke’s new media campaign-often a social media trigger point setting off wobbly net sentiment in brands with otherwise steady positive performance. However, the brand’s new Happiness Factory ad campaign was trending positive.
Initially, it all began to look for Coke like a latter day Mentos Bomb syndrome.
Phony Coca-Cola PSA Warning
With its origin still a mystery, the full post read:
NEW DRINKING WARNING JUST RELEASED : Vodka & ice will ruin your kidneys. Rum & ice will ruin your liver. Whiskey & ice will ruin your heart. Gin & ice will ruin your brain. Coca Cola & ice will ruin your teeth … Apparently ICE is lethal!!! Warn all your friends: LAY OFF THE ICE ! -just drink it straight!! Copy & paste this immediately. You could save a life!!! (don’t forget…ICE also sank the Titanic– 28 August
Source
While the post continued to go viral, it turned out nevertheless to be a hoax provoking a precipitous downward spiral in brand Net Sentiment – from an enviable summer high of 61% by end of June to -32% by July 30. The mammoth corresponding surge in buzz-an increase exceeding 10,000% relative to last year-was highly irregular.
Coca-Cola Net Sentiment July 13-August 3, 2011
The sentiment dive was impacted primarily by a surge in buzz share regarding “ruin teeth.” The detail below shows the predominant conversation drivers impacting negative emotions from the bottom of the retreating week of July 27-August 3.
Coca-Cola Dislikes – July 27-August 3 (Based on Over 13K High Precision Sound Bites for Negative Emotions)
While the PSA warning was phony, Coca-Cola’s real brand equity slid – coincidentally, during the same period.
Coca-Cola Stock Equity Slides in July-August
Although the widely held belief that such soft drinks as Coke do lead to tooth decay exists, Net Sentiment was negatively skewed by an unsubstantiated official public health warning. Recording the inadvertent plummet resulting from the bogus viral “rot teeth” PSA warning, Workbench NLP analytics engine validated over 13K high precision negative emotion sound bites.
Despite this knock to Coke sentiment, our Workbench analysis showed an overall upbeat trend for the past 12 months, and a September rebound in Net Sentiment to usual levels-apparently also offset by the launch of the flagship brand’s The Great Happyfication ad-its fifth, albeit first new installment in three years for the campaign series that launched in 2006. The commercial will run online and via social media.
Coca-Cola Net Sentiment September 2010-11
The Coke and ice hoax isn’t without precedent, recalling the 2009 Coke and Mentos prank. In fact, the media-savvy brand has a site dedicated to rumors: Coca-Cola Rumors & Facts . A search of the site’s “Coke and ice rumor” found zero results, although “dental health” showed ample responsible guidelines for maintaining dental hygiene-and health and wellness in general. “Mentos and Coke” also turned up ample results.
Still, many people have conducted and published their own experiments, as in this dental health related video on YouTube –
Insights
Localspeak was hard pressed to find any official Coke response to the PSA hoax, making it appear that the brand’s social tracking team opted to ignore it. We surmise that other brands might have grasped the buzz by the horns and given it some good old spin-perhaps responding with a real and timely “Back to School” PSA proactively promoting dental health. They even might have ridden the social buzz wave to a new height, perhaps. But then, Coke has already amply addressed dental health on its rumors and facts site.
For those of us who use social media analytics engines to gain insights, the discovery opportunities for brands are enormous. Whether they seek to test new creative concepts, thwart negative sentiment or preempt erosion of brand equity or competitive positioning by tracking brand health through custom lenses, the barrier to entry is virtually nonexistent.
