The Coca-Cola Company today announced the global extension of the ‘one brand’ marketing strategy it kicked off in the UK last March.

The new ‘Taste the Feeling’ campaign will for the first time see Coke, Diet Coke and Coke Zero appear together in 10 TV ads across the world. Reduced sugar variant Coke Life, launched in the UK in the summer of 2014, will also appear in the ads in countries where it is currently available.

“The new ‘one brand’ approach will share the equity of Coca-Cola across all Coca-Cola trademark products, reinforcing our commitment to offer consumers choice with more clarity,” said chief marketing officer Marcos de Quinto.

“This is a powerful investment behind all Coca-Cola products, showing how everyone can enjoy the specialness of an ice-cold Coca-Cola, with or without calories, with or without caffeine.”

The new campaign comes after a difficult year for Coke in the UK. Combined sales of the four key Coke variants suffered a £26.7m (2.3%) decline last year on volumes that remained flat [Nielsen 52 w/e 24 October 2015].

Ads will be rolled out in different markets throughout the year. The campaign includes TV ads with a soundtrack by Australian singer-songwriter Conrad Sewell and print, in-store, billboard and digital activity using more than 100 images shot by fashion photographers Guy Aroch and Nacho Ricci.

The first ad to hit UK screens is entitled Brotherly Love, featured at the top of the page, which follows a story of conflict and reconciliation (over a Coke) of two brothers, set to a soundtrack by songwriter and producer Avicii. The lead global ad is called Anthem and features the song Taste the Feeling, sung by Sewell.

“The campaign creative was designed to celebrate the notion that the simple pleasure of drinking an ice-cold Coca-Cola makes any moment more special,” said Rodolfo Echeverria, VP for global creative, connections & digital.

“The universal moments and storytelling depicted in the campaign were created to resonate with our consumers globally. The same images and television creative in Japan will also be seen in Italy, in Mexico and around the world.”

Coca-Cola began advertising all four Cokes – full sugar, Diet, Zero and Life – as one brand in the UK last spring, claiming the move would boost sales of no and low-sugar variants through a closer association with the core brand.

The brand wants 50% of UK sales to be accounted for by no or low-sugar variants by 2020. In December, Coke’s UK bottler and distributor Coca-Cola Enterprises told The Grocer that Diet, Zero and Life currently accounted for almost 43% of UK volumes.

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