How Coca-Cola Journey transformed corporate communications

Abstract

In 2012, The Coca-Cola Company revolutionised the concept of the traditional corporate website with the creation of Coca-Cola Journey — a carefully curated mix of branded and non-branded articles, rich with multimedia content, designed to connect not just Coca-Cola’s consumers and investors but also journalists and even critics. Journey has since evolved into a global digital destination for readers seeking to learn more about the company, its culture, mission, products and people. Journey’s formula draws on the three ‘Cs’ — content, coordinated, current — to drive its editorial vision, resulting in engaging content that expands upon, but goes much further than, the company’s key messaging and product marketing goals. Run as a daily digital news magazine, Journey delivers dozens of stories related to various interest categories across 23 countries and in 12 languages. The platform draws heavily on video, audio and images as well as long form, and actively solicits and highlights user-generated content from consumers and company associates alike. To help other organisations who may wish to develop a robust integrated digital platform dedicated to delivering an authentic, engagement-centric online experience, this paper describes the lessons that Journey’s editorial team have learned.