ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 16, 1996 TAG: 9607160048
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: Associated Press
THROUGHOUT THE OLYMPICS, the beverage giant will run a slew of ads, but most of them will not be repeated.
Coca-Cola Co., the single biggest sponsor on NBC's Olympic coverage, has a plan it hopes will prevent commercial burnout.
The soft drink maker plans to run 100 different commercials - most of them only once - during NBC's 17 days of coverage of the Summer Games starting Friday.
Sixty-nine ads will be run for Coca-Cola Classic, and each will be run only one time during the games.
Most of these ads will have run previously as part of the ``Always Coca-Cola'' campaign the company launched in 1993. But a dozen commercials are new or haven't been shown before in the United States, Coca-Cola's top marketing executive, Sergio Zyman, said Monday.
The Atlanta-based soda marketer has come up with daily themes for its advertising on each of the 17 days of the Olympics, and has picked commercials for each day that fit the night's theme.
There will be Cool Summer Day, Getting in Shape Day, One World Day and Sounds of Refreshment Day.
The company will run another 17 commercials once each to introduce each day's theme. Two more ads appearing only once will mark the opening night and closing ceremonies.
Another dozen commercials will pitch the company's other drinks such as Diet Coke, Sprite, Fruitopia and Powerade. Unlike the other ads, the commercials for these brands may appear more than once on the Olympic telecasts.
Coca-Cola reportedly spent $40 million for the rights to be the soft drink sponsor of the Olympics, and is paying another $62 million to run its ads on NBC's telecast of the games.
It has been estimated that Coca-Cola is spending in excess of $250 million overall on Olympic marketing around the world.
Zyman was asked if he expected criticism about the costs of producing and running 100 different ads as opposed to using a smaller number of commercials each shown more than once on the Olympics.
The marketing executive said Coca-Cola already has reduced its ad budget by embracing the ``Always'' theme around the world and halting the company's prior practice of creating different campaigns for individual countries.
Zyman noted the company has experienced above-average growth in sales in recent months, and said growth this year will be significant.
Coca-Cola's second-quarter earnings released Monday show a 17 percent increase, attributed to increased promotion of its distinctive bottles and aggressive Olympic marketing.
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