Brand case study · Soft drinks · 4 markets
Coca-Cola owns the table in 4 markets, Foodie creators own the kitchen
SOMIN read Coca-Cola, 2–5 soft-drink rivals and 5–7 Foodie creators in each of India, the UK, Mexico and South Africa. Creators were loudest on home cooking and regional discovery, up to 82.9% of their content; cola had 0%.
The challenge
Coca-Cola's voice sits in celebration and sport, like its rivals
Benchmarking Pepsi, Limca, Corona or Irn-Bru only shows where parity is required. The question was where Foodie audiences talk, and whether cola is there at all.
The approach
Three cohorts and eight content strands in each of 4 markets
- Perspective Studies on Coca-Cola, competitors and leading Foodie creators over four quarters.
- Share of voice across eight content strands, from home cooking to sports fandom.
- One anchor SOMIN persona and three pillars per market.
- Share and volume read together, so a falling share is not mistaken for decline.
Key findings
Home cooking and regional discovery are open in all 4 markets
Home cooking is 62.9% of Indian Foodie content, cola 0%
Coca-Cola and its rivals had 0.0%; Coca-Cola put 57.1% of its voice into shared celebration.
Regional discovery: 76.8% in Mexico, 82.9% in South Africa
Authentic and regional culinary discovery, where neither Coca-Cola nor its rivals published.
UK creators split 48.2% home cooking, 43.7% discovery
Cola sat at 0.0% on both; Coca-Cola put 69.2% of its voice into shared celebration.
What SOMIN delivered
A persona and three pillars for each of Coca-Cola's 4 markets
- Pillars such as Home-Cooking Confidence, World on Your Table, Reclaim the Roots and Honour the Craft
- A whitespace table and quarterly topicality read per market
- Strategic angles mapped per tension, one to pick per pillar
- A cross-market plan: lead with culinary whitespace, hold an everyday-pairing bridge, defend or extend the third pillar
“Coca-Cola owns the table. The Foodie creators own the kitchen.”
From the SOMIN brand briefing
The outcome
Coca-Cola should lead each market on its culinary whitespace
Creator collaborations lead on home cooking or authentic discovery, SOMIN moments set the calendar, the everyday-pairing bridge runs on real propositions, and celebration is defended in Mexico and South Africa.
FAQ
Coca-Cola case study FAQ
About SOMIN
SOMIN is a Singapore-based AI marketing-intelligence platform. It turns real-time competitor and audience data into pre-scored propositions, briefs and creative concepts for brands, agencies and creator programmes across 11+ markets.
Built by seasoned marketers and an AI professor: the methods behind this study are peer-reviewed at AAAI, ACM Multimedia, SIGIR, WSDM and in ACM TOIS. See the research and talks.
Why look at Foodie creators and not only at competitors?
Competitors show only the floor. Foodie creators spot food trends first, so where their audience leans in and no cola brand follows is the opportunity.
What does whitespace mean in this briefing?
Whitespace: the creator cohort, a proxy for demand, is active and the cola category is not. A quiet brand alone does not count; its silence may be deliberate.
Is the plan the same in every market?
The move is the same: lead with culinary whitespace and keep an everyday-pairing bridge where Coca-Cola has a foothold. The persona, pillars and cultural route change.
Why read volume as well as share?
In India, creator share on regional discovery fell from 81% to 37%, but volume grew from 48 to 559 posts: a composition effect, not a decline.
Get the full Coca-Cola case study
Every page of the brand briefing: the data, the whitespace, the personas and the creative. Free, straight after a short form.