Retirement of Coke prez Keough draws attention to marketing department By Alison Fahe

NEW YORK--As Coca-Cola previewed its long-awaited new Coke Classic campaign last week from talent broker Creative Artists Agenc

Keough, who’s been at Coke since 1950, will retire effective April 15 and, as expected, will be replaced by two executives: Doug/vester, now president of Coke USA and John Hunter, who heads up international operations lADWEEK, Feb. 15).
Keough has been a vocal supporter of Coke’s longtime agency McCann-Erickson, and sources have speculated that once Keough retires, McCann could be vulnerable.
The agency’s footing with the Coke account appears to have gotten even shakier with Creative Artists Agency creating 24 out of 26 new Coke Classic ads and consulting on media strategies.
While Coke still says McCann is deeply involved in the creative process, some observers claimed that McCann could be relegated to a media buying service for Coke or that the agency’s international offices will be used mainly to translate CAAproduced ads for overseas markets.
Although Ivester, who has a financial background, will be involved in advertising, Peter Sealey, director of global marketing, is spearheading the new Coke Classic campaign. And sources expect Hunter, who began at Coke as an ad manager, to emerge as a key player on the marketing front. As Coke’s marketing strategy has taken a more global approach in the past year or two, advertising has become the domain of Coca-Cola Co., which created the most recent campaign that will also run in the U.S.
Sources said that process is causing friction between some corporate executives like Sealey and Coke USA execs, who had minimal input into the new campaign.
As new executions of the “Always Coke” campaign are now being developed both at McCann and at CAA, several Coke bottlers last week praised the new work. “It’s exciting,” said one marketing exec at a Chicago Coke bottler. “It’s fresh and new.”
In the U.S., the CAA ads will be augmented with ethnic-oriented ads from Burrell Advertising, Atlanta, and Sosa Bromley Aguilar & Associates, San Antonio.
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