Stories by Doug Busk

How does a giant brand like Coca-Cola organize aspects of its communications? Like much of the work at The Coca-Cola Company, digital and social communications is a scale operation. Global Digital Communications and Social Media reports to Coca-Cola’s Public Affairs and Communications function (PAC). It is a lean group of nine based out of company center headquarters in Atlanta, supporting the editorial, social media and technology capabilities of in-market teams locally. An in-depth look at organization and how Coca-Cola has changed its social storytelling follows.

Taking a cue from the social media model of two-way, authentic communication, The Coca-Cola Company upended the traditional model of a brand website with the introduction of Coca-Cola Journey. The platform serves as a digital destination for Coca-Cola consumers and a variety of audiences including partners, investors, journalists and yes, even critics. Once it had done that, it the Coke team realized it had to devise a new way to measure communications success. So it did.