Coca-Cola dives into ocean conservancy awareness with social media campaign

ATLANTA Coca-Cola has launched a social media campaign to raise awareness of Earth Month and help support marine conservation organization Ocean Conservancy.

Through a new Facebook application, users can “oceanize” themselves into a playful underwater photo. For every person who dives into this new app, Coca-Cola will donate $1, up to a total of $200,000, to support Ocean Conservancy’s marine debris program identifying policies and solutions to preventing trash from reaching our ocean and waterways. Also, through the company’s MyCokeRewards points program and a direct donation-matching program through LivePositively.com, Coca-Cola will contribute up to an additional $50,000.

In line with the social media campaign, Coca-Cola also will launch a print and online advertising campaign to complement the Facebook program. The new advertisements invite consumers to support the cause by donating their time, money or MyCokeRewards points to Ocean Conservancy and lets them know that Coca-Cola will honor their commitment with a contribution. Since 1995, Coca-Cola has supported Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup, the world’s largest one-day volunteer event on behalf of clean oceans and waterways. In 2008, Coca-Cola launched a multi-year partnership with Ocean Conservancy through a $1 million pledge to support the ICC. That same year, nearly 50,000 Coca-Cola system associates, their friends and families in 35 markets around the world participated in the ICC, and in the United States, system employees contributed nearly 25,000 hours of volunteer time in the Cleanup.

“Using this entertaining, unique social media campaign to partner with Facebook fans, creating a full interactive communication program to support Ocean Conservancy, is just one of the many ways we are engaging people to lessen their climate footprint -- not just during Earth Month, but all year long,” said Celeste Bottorff, VP living well division at Coca-Cola. “At The Coca-Cola Company, we believe we can make a positive difference on the planet through our employees, our consumers, our partners – and our innovative product packaging.”