Key Points
Coca-Cola received earned media through the experiments made by Voltz and Grobe with their viral videos of The Bellagio Fountains. Diet Coke saw a 5-10% increase in sales after the videos and a 27% increase in traffic to Coke.com.
Facebook Fan pages helped Coke to connect and make relationships with its consumers. The fans they attract are not based on incentives offered, because the page was at one point run by users not affiliated with Coca Cola.
The fan page for Coke made by Sorg and Jedrzejewski was successful and superior to the 150 other fan pages because of their large social graphs, the technological sophistication their page had and the professional look it had.
When given the option by Facebook for Coca Cola to take over the fan run Fan page, Coca Cola decided to collaborate with Sorg and Jedrzerewski to ensure the page was a member of the community but not in a big-brand way.
CASE SPECIFIC QUESTION:
Coca-Cola considered letting a third party use their brand and trademark in a public forum because of the 150 fan pages that had surfaced on Facebook around the topic of Coca-Cola, this particular page was very successful, with its sophisticated and professional layout. Making a new Facebook page, Coke may not attract the millions of fans that had liked the previous fan page. As well, they may seem like they were invading a public forum as a large corporate marketer. Coca-Cola wants to maintain and grow its consumer-company relationships and make sure that there is two-way communication in the marketplace.