Coca-Cola quietly launched one of their first social media applications last weekend, a bookmarking widget for Facebook called CokeTag. (Coke Singapore also has a Facebook application out, promoting a tie-in with UEFA EURO 2008.) CokeTag is not only a smart play from the company, but also a fairly useful app as far as profile widgets go. The app allows users to create customizable Flash bookmark widgets linking to link collections on any topic they’re passionate about.
Coke is using their social media widget initially to promote their we8 project, which is a “cultural exchange” of top artists and designers from China, paired with Western musicians. we8 is part of Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of the upcoming Beijing Olympics. Coke has been a sponsor of the Olympics since 1928 — the games’ longest running sponsor.
While some of the press pack that was delivered to us along with CokeTag is a little over the top (i.e., “The Coca-Cola Company aligns itself with delivering the promise of a cross-platform Web experience, consistent with Coke’s brand value of bringing people together for social connections across cultures.”), launching a social media application is a smart move. If there’s one thing that Coca-Cola understands, it’s branding — they didn’t become Millward Brown’s #4 brand in the world by accident. And CokeTag is all a about branding.