Coca-Cola calendar ad, al-Kawakib 1952
American University in Cairo, Rare Books and Special Collections Library. al-Kawakib. RBSCL believes this item is in the public domain.
The pattern
This still is filed under Utility premium.
Define
The free thing is kept because it works (a calendar, a tool, a template) and the brand rides along.
Mechanism
Usefulness as media. Frequency of use is frequency of exposure. Distinct from a keepable card: here the object has a job.
Verdict
We can give something people will actually use next week.
Why it works
The page is built to be torn out and kept: a colour view of the Nile at Aswan, captioned as the third in a series called Egypt our beautiful country, above a full month calendar. The reader pins it up for October, and the bottle and red disc sit beside the dates for 31 days. Tying the drink to a local landscape also makes a foreign brand feel at home.
The big idea
Coca-Cola gives readers a page worth keeping, a colour view of the Nile at Aswan over the October calendar, and sits beside the dates all month.
The offer
A keepable October calendar under a colour photo of the Nile at Aswan, the third picture in the series Egypt, our beautiful country.
Lines from the ad
كوكا كولاCoca-Cola
النيل الخالد... عند أسوانThe eternal Nile. at Aswan
مصر بلادنا الجميلةEgypt, our beautiful country
Steal this when
Use it when you can give buyers something useful they will look at every day, like a calendar or a planner, with the brand sitting quietly beside it.
The emotion
Written to Belonging. It makes the Avoid mistake.
The Nile at Aswan under the line Egypt, our beautiful country is a national picture any brand could sign, and the bottle only sits beside the October dates with no part in the scene.
If this library is useful, leave an email
We send new patterns, ads, and notes when we add them. Name and phone are optional.
You are on the list
We will write when we add more library material.