Coca-cola brings back Surge!

Published September 23, 2014 at 10:25 am

Nostalgia can be powerful. Marketers know this, and as such, will sometimes create buzz by bringing back “retired” products for another round.

The latest company to employ this tactic is Coca-Cola. According to Adweek, Coca-Cola is bringing back the citrus soda Surge, which has been off the market for more than a decade.

But to achieve success with these types of efforts it is necessary to use effective marketing tactics. Coca-Cola turned to a social media campaign to spread the word that the drink was coming back. The company created a Facebook page called “The Surge Movement,” which stated it had a mission to bring the soda back and ensure that it has long-term success.

According to the SURGE Movement Facebook page, the “entire available SURGE inventory sold out in less than an hour.” As Adweek details, this was the first time Coca-Cola had reintroduced a discontinued product.

The power of nostalgia was displayed in this campaign, as people signed up to join the “movement” to bring back a product they had once enjoyed and expressed great interest at the possibility of having it again. They even contributed money to help pay for a billboard near Coca-Cola’s Atlanta headquarters, and created their own commercials on YouTube.

As this example illustrates, the combination of nostalgia, in addition to offering a product in a limited quantity or for a limited time, can create excitement and urgency among customers. Combined with the power of social media, a campaign like this has the power to spread quickly across the Internet, turning buzz into sales.

Social media can be a powerful marketing tool. Automated marketing software helps provide high levels of personalization and efficiency when executing these types of campaigns.