• Brandweek, Friday, March 5, 2010 10:59 AM

"Stay," a new spot for Diet Coke that will make its debut on the Oscars broadcast, features vignettes of six people who have extraordinary "drive, passion, and courage" -- including a nurse, a fashion designer, a movie director -- as well as a relationship with the soft drink that "helps them stay that way," Katie Bayne, CMO of Coca-Cola North America, tells Elena Malykhina.

The spot is part the "Stay Extraordinary" that launched last month that's aimed at "next generation" (20-29) consumers. Bayne says new components of the effort including out-of-home, DietCoke.com and more TV ads are forthcoming in the spring. "We have a bold social and digital plan that ties in with how people stay extraordinary," she says.

Diet Coke volume was down 2.9% last year, according to Beverage Digest; editor John Sicher feels that Coke Zero may be cannibalizing it. But Bayne responds that Coke Zero drinkers tend to be younger (15-19) and male, and that they come back to Diet Coke as they age.

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