‘Tastes more like Coke’: Coca-Cola’s £4.5m advertising campaign for Coca-Cola Zero Sugar

Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP) has today launched a new advertising campaign for Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, emphasizing the similarities in taste with the flagship Coca-Cola Classic brand. 

Coca-Cola Zero Sugar has become the fastest-growing top five cola brand in Great Britain, according to Nielsen data.

Coca-Cola Zero Sugar was launched in Great Britain last year along with a £10m ($12m) advertising campaign. Described as a ‘new and improved sugar free cola’, it replaced Coca-Cola Zero, which had been in the market since 2006. The beverage is calorie free and sweetened with aspartame and acesulfame K.

Both Coca-Cola Zero Sugar and Diet Coke use aspartame and acesulfame K to sweeten the drink instead of sugar. However, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar is designed to look and taste more like Coca-Cola Classic, whereas Diet Coke has a ‘lighter taste’ thanks to a different flavor base.

The new campaign for Coca-Cola Zero Sugar will highlight the drink’s same ‘great taste associated with Coca-Cola Classic, but with no sugar’.

The £4.5m ($5.4m) campaign will feature above-the-line activations including six-sheets (bus-shelter poster size), bus advertising and digital marketing. A television commercial will run until March.

Coca-Cola says the campaign will help retailers boost sales of calorie-free products.