• November 12, 2012

Coca-Cola's corporate Web site has been revamped to take a more engaging, consumer-oriented approach, reports The New York Times.

The site, now called Coca-Cola Journey, has been repositioned to resemble an online magazine, in what Coca-Cola described as its most ambitious digital project since it first introduced the corporate site in 1995, spanning an investment of multi-millions over multiple years. 

In addition to areas with investor information, news releases, and bios of executives, the site now offers magazine-like "stories" (albeit mostly relating in some positive way to the company and its brands) in tabs with subject areas such as entertainment, environment, health and sports.

Lead stories from these sections also can be accessed through a bar at the top, as can opinion pieces (e.g., the mayor of Prattville,  Ala.  writing on "Staying Healthy in Small-Town America"), videos and blogs. Links are provided to share information and comment through a variety of social media.

To manage the site, the digital communications and social media team has been restructured to function more like an editorial team at a long-lead magazine, with a production schedule and editorial calendar, Ashley Brown, director for digital communications and social media at the Coca-Cola Company, told the Times. Four full-time employees work on the site, and content is also being created by 40 freelance writers and photographers, plus marketing and PR people throughout the company.

Coca-Cola, which is promoting the new site through SEM on Google, LinkedIn ads and outreach to customers and partners around the world, believes it can greatly increase the site's already substantial number of visitors (1.2 million uniques per month) with this "storytelling" approach to marketing, which ties in with its "liquid and linked" strategy for spreading its content across all media, Brown said.