BALTIMORE -- Coke Zero is offering a special "toast" to celebrate the 2012 World Champion Baltimore Ravens with the release of a limited-edition commemorative can. The specially designed, collectible cans mark the second world championship in Ravens' history.
"Coke Zero joins the legions of Baltimore Ravens fans who cheered their team on to this thrilling victory," said Brendan Walshe, vice president for sales, Maryland Market Unit, Coca-Cola Refreshments. "With this special celebratory packaging, we're raising a congratulatory toast to the Baltimore Ravens, their staff and the loyal members of Ravens Nation to salute this exciting football season."
In addition to special Coke Zero packaging, Coca-Cola, the official soft drink of the Ravens, will offer a commemorative championship can design. The Coca-Cola Co. will release a limited number of both the 12-ounce Coca-Cola and Coke Zero cans at select Baltimore and Eastern Shore area retail locations; the cans will be available while supplies last. The side panels of both of the commemorative-edition packages feature the Ravens logo and a celebratory theme.
And while the team from Baltimore took home the Super Bowl championship, a cast of Showgirls raced to a victory of their own in the Coke Chase. They bested their desert rivals, the Cowboys and the Badlanders, in a quest to be first to reach a bottle of Coke. To propel them to the finish line, fans cast nearly 910,000 votes, almost 7.3 million sabotages and about three million YouTube views, bringing active fan engagement with the campaign to top 11 million in the process--figures that surpassed all internal projections.
More than one million fans visited CokeChase.com to vote for the characters they liked best. Those visitors stayed on the site, each participating in an average of eight "sabotages" against opposing factions. The company anticipated fewer than one million total sabotages. Also the company tracked more than 86,000 mentions of the campaign across various social media platforms.
"We hoped our characters would come to life in such a way that fans would want to rally behind their favorite team, but we are thrilled by the success of the active engagement resulting from this year's campaign," said Pio Schunker, senior vice president of integrated marketing communications for Coca-Cola North America Group. "Fans flocked to CokeChase.com to vote and sabotage in numbers far beyond the aggressive performance goals we had in place."
More than 100 million broadcast viewers saw "Mirage," and it garnered nearly there million online views, exceeding the 1.7 million cumulative views of the company's Polar Bowl spots in 2012.
"The characters featured in our Big Game ad, 'Mirage,' generated such a groundswell of support from fans, we're not ready to say goodbye to them just yet," said Schunker. "The unique nature of 'Mirage' and the consumer engagement it generated during our campaign--especially in active experiences, versus passive experiences as in last year's Polar Bowl--makes it a repeatable idea that will live on long after [the Super Bowl]."
The 30-second payoff ad featuring the Showgirls' CokeChase victory immediately after the game will air on Feb. 6 and 7 during American Idol. It will be joined by a Kalaharian Epilogue, which features "Mirage" character Vincent De Fairweather, on cable networks this week. In addition, moviegoers will begin seeing "Mirage" in movie theaters beginning in March.
Atlanta-based Coca-Cola is the world's largest beverage company, with more than 500 sparkling and still brands. Led by Coca-Cola, its portfolio features 15 billion-dollar brands including Diet Coke, Fanta, Sprite, Coca-Cola Zero, vitaminwater, Powerade, Minute Maid, Simply, Georgia and Del Valle.
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