Global case study of digital marketing on social media by a top soda brand

Summary The Big Soda segment is central in modern food systems, and they invest heavily in digital marketing, but little is known about it. We aimed to analyze the digital marketing on Facebook of the soda brand with a major worldwide reach. Countries were described in terms of soda brand presence and popularity on Facebook according to countries’ socio-demographic index (SDI) and the market share of soda brand (%MS). From 149 countries, 57.0% had soda brand’s Facebook page among the top five in the number of followers within the beverage segment. Among them, digital marketing was described by the number of the page followers, the number of posts, and the number of interactions (likes, comments and shares) that each post received by Facebook users. Also, we analyzed the characteristics, and the use of marketing strategies on posts in a random sample of 10% (n = 1217) of all posts. We found that soda brand’s popularity on Facebook was higher among countries with higher SDI and higher %MS. Also, the number of users that engaged with soda brand’s posts was higher among countries with lower SDI and higher brand’s %MS. The brand’s posts focus on young adults, display of brand’s products and glorification of its attributes. Other identified features include sport-related thematic and appeals to socialization and healthy eating. In addition, posts’ characteristics differed with countries’ characteristics. Soda brand digital marketing varies according to countries’ characterization and maintains the brand position on the global marketing of beverages.