While old Mother had very high consumer awareness, eight out of 10 people hated the taste. A decision was made to relaunch Mother and change everything except the name.

The business directive was to turn the brand around in six months to prevent it from being delisted. We needed to overcome the intense negativity towards the brand from consumers, trade and media.

PR had to deliver an integrated campaign to amplify the core creative idea and introduce Mother to media and consumers in a compelling way - generate WOM to create interest and consumer pull.

The strategy was for Coca-Cola to admit its mistakes, disarm critics and move the story away from old Mother and on to new Mother. We put the market on notice by seeding product and stories in the pre-launch phase. We declared old Mother ‘dead’ and then began driving the new taste message hard. Publicly admitting the taste of old Mother was wrong was surprising and effective in counteracting negativity. What followed was a multifaceted PR campaign including a stunt, consumer influencer outreach, media and blogger relations and a viral.

The product has not been delisted and is currently outselling competitors.

The campaign ran for five months (June to October 2008).The key IC and Marketing media were approached before launch (June) followed by a full reveal at a launch with the new tasting drink (July), positioning and campaign details. This gave us two hits of coverage and opened the door for the sales force.Media and Viral stunt – Zoo Weekly and mX were invited to destroy 10,000 old Mother cans with a tank. The footage of the destruction was edited into a viral at launch.Media and Influencer outreach – new Mother product with ‘Have you got the balls to try it?’ communication and squashed cans of old Mother were sent to key media and influencers, including police, firemen and builders.

Blogger and Social Media outreach - we targeted bloggers across lifestyle, racing, etc. A ‘Social Media Release’ (http://mother.socialmediarelease.com.au/) was developed, allowing people to download all materials for the campaign, including the TVC and the stunt viral, from one central online location.

Destruction of old Mother gave media a unique experience; communicated new taste; drove media coverage and provided compelling content to engage media, influencers and bloggers.Influencer outreach put the product directly into the hands of the target audience.We also excited the IC trade media by talking to them like consumers and allowed them to make up their own minds which meant that the sales force noted a much warmer reception when selling in. Retailers actually requested Mother after seeing trade media coverage.Measurable results:•1,500+ media, influencers and bloggers reached •2 pieces of offline media coverage •Total circulation (not including blogs) = 3.8 million (total reach of 11 million+)•67 online and blog mentions (targeted 75 bloggers) •The product was not delisted•Full year volume target reached in 14 weeks•Now the no 1 Energy can and currently enjoying 35% volume market share of Energy Can segment (bigger than Red Bull and V)•Currently the fastest selling energy brand, $50M+ sales revenue annually.Sources: 1 CCA Nielsen, TTL market, Single Serve Energy Can Volume – data to QTR to 21/12/082 Mother Retail Sales (Jul-Dec 08) Annualised