Only 20 seconds were enough for Cristiando Ronaldo to damage Coca-Cola’s reputation and brand equity, after he removed two bottles of the company from the table and replaced one of water during a European Championship press conference. .
This fact caused that, in at least five countries, 207 million people saw news related to the subject, with negative repercussions for the brand. In the networks, Brazil, the United States, India, France and Mexico accounted for 66% of the total conversation.
In Mexico, despite the crisis caused by Cristiano Ronaldo, the brand decided to launch its #LaMejorCocaColaDeTodas campaign in order to publicize the new Coca-Cola Sin Azúcar.
According to the campaign audit carried out by Metrics between June 1 and 16, 2021, the hashtag promoted by the soft drink generated a reach of 2 million 387,000 people.
In the analysis, it is identified that the promoted campaign was linked to the crisis triggered by the soccer player, which caused the attitude to be mostly negative: 69% of messages were positioned against it.
Only 31% (733 messages) were positive, and the remaining 69% were negative. According to the Metrics performance algorithm, the cost per positive positioning per message for the Coca-Cola trend in Mexico was approximately $ 14 per user.
According to the official publications of the soft drink company on social networks, the qualitative objective was to publicize Coca-Cola Sin Azúcar, in addition to “highlighting its flavor and freshness”, qualifying it as “delicious”.
However, this association was not reflected in the positive discursive lines towards the new version of the soft drink. Users mainly shared official publications, secondly they issued messages where they shared their favorite versions of the soda, to a lesser extent they managed to get public opinion to invite them to try it and finally they defended the brand from Cristiano Ronaldo’s snub.
The negative messages focused on mockery of the brand for the video of the soccer player using the hashtag as a concept for criticism. On Twitter, activists also expressed concern about Mexico’s water shortage, in addition to blaming the soft drink for obesity and diabetes in the country.
According to the Metrics crisis management methodology, it is relevant to understand the stage in which a risk situation is found, so that companies have the ability to make informed decisions, ensuring that campaign launches do not coincide with negative inflections in the conversation and are detonated at an opportune moment.
