Older Target Sought for Coke’s Fledgling Soda
SAN FRANCISCO–Goldberg Moser O’Neill has created two new TV spots for Coca-Cola’s fledgling Citra soda, which is being repositioned to appeal to an older consumer target.
The ad, breaking this week in the 24 markets where the grapefruit-flavored drink is available, takes a narrative approach. “Instead of people jumping around and drinking soda, we use scenarios of people working up a powerful thirst,” said agency chairman Fred Goldberg.
One of GMO’s two 60-second spots features a “ball shagger,” the person who drives the tractor that collects golf balls at driving ranges. When his vehicle breaks down, the driver is forced to run through a hail of golf balls launched by sadistic duffers. “There’s nothing like a day on the range to make you thirsty. That’s why there’s Citra–the soda with the curiously crisp citrus taste,” a voiceover says. The spots keep the “No thirst is safe” tagline. Outdoor ads support the effort.
Previous Citra ads featured teens stealing a garden gnome and taking it on a photo trip before returning it. Coke has budgeted $20 million in marketing support for the brand; it spent just $1 million through November 1997, per Competitive Media Reporting.
Coca-Cola is shifting its target for the brand from 15- to 19-year-olds to 15- to 24-year-olds, to reduce the overlap with Surge, the citrus-flavored drink it also launched in 1997.
Citra Spots Court Active Thirst
