Pop goes East

Music marketing gets a sugar rush

What?: Music is dropping a pack of Mentos into the soft drinks arena with the major brands eying up the emerging Far East market.

As part of its Olympic activation, Coke is running WE08 (short for ‘West meets East 2008’), whereby the company has asked four designers and artists in China to create new limited-edition bottle designs. This artwork will then be given to four Western musicians to create music inspired by it.

Egyptian singer Tamer Hosni has been appointed as Coca-Cola’s new Middle East brand ambassador. He has been signed up due to “his love for life and his dedication to spreading the message through music,” said Rafik El Toukhi, President, Middle East Business Unit, Coca-Cola.

Pepsi has spent $5M on producing a full-length musical for the Eastern market. Bahr Al Nujoom (Sea Of Stars), was filmed last year in a village in northern Lebanon and features five Arab pop stars, including Lebanese Haifa Wehbe. “With a growing young population in the Middle East, we see a big potential for us here,” said Moussa Mustafa, the Regional Marketing Director for Pepsi Middle East. The musical – which arrives on screen in May – tells the story of a teenage boy who attempts to revive his small town by organising a music festival.

So What?: With the Middle East much more of an open playing field – due to the downplaying of alcoholic beverages – soft drinks are seeing marked increases. There is, however, a need to marry the Westernised culture of these brands with localised culture. Pepsi is embracing this wholeheartedly and has previously teamed up Christina Aguilera with Lebanese singer Elissa and footballer Thierry Henry with Haifa Wehbe. Celebrity ads are proving popular, so creating a High School Musical-styled film version is a smart move here. Coke is also bridging the local/global divide with its East meets West campaign (taking elements similar to a Pepsi and Faithless campaign we covered last year) and also by teaming up with singer Nancy Ajram. Coke makes $70M annually in the Middle East – a tiny chunk of its global $27.4B take – but one that is seeing steady growth due to its music associations.

“The use of music as a cultural connector for Western brands moving East just proves how powerful music can be. It’s like an extension to the re-packaging of a product to help its local acceptance in a new market – but far more powerful. Music contextualises the product or brand – and in the case of Coke’s campaign, it even highlights the movement of the product from West to East.”
Jack Horner, Creative Director, FRUKT

www.bahralnujoom.com

www.cocacolamiddleeast.com