Coke's Billion-Dollar Babies

With a strategy that combines disruptive and conventional, Coca-Cola India has turned thums up and sprite into billion-dollar brands, and is now aiming to get maaza into the club, leaving competition behind in its wake

- Krishna Gopalan

AT A RUNNING TIME OF TWO MINUTES AND 54 SECONDS, MEMU AAGAMU IS A RAGE ON COKE STUDIO INDIA'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL. WITH OVER 75 MILLION VIEWS, THE SONG, NAY MUSIC VIDEO, NAY TV COMMERCIAL...

...OKAY, ALL THREE put together, has lyrics in Hindi, Telugu and, believe it or not, in Korean. It stars Telugu films’ superstar Allu Arjun (think Pushpa), Bollywood singer Armaan Malik, and South Korean girl band TRI.BE.

Right. So, foot-tapping music, pleasing optics, cool fusion… all very well, but what’s the point? The point, folks, is Coke Studio; those familiar with the popular music television series would be wondering what happened. After all, Coke Studio is ordinarily meant to promote new singing talent—supported by star singers—from multiple influences ranging from classical Indian to rock and pop music. None of the protagonists in Memu Aagamu fits into this description. Armaan Malik is neither a new singer nor in the league of superstars. The Korean girls, extremely talented, are not in the Indian music scene. And Allu Arjun, for all his popularity, is an actor lip-syncing to Malik’s crooning, not a singer.

So, again, what’s the point? The larger point here is that this video exemplifies Coca-Cola India’s new, counter-intuitive approach towards marketing—be it in the media mix, launching new brands, approach to digital, or looking to make product offerings relevant through the year. How about a bottle of Sprite in winter? Fancy a Coca-Cola with your lunch? Or a Maaza after dinner? You get the drift.