Available from September onwards, the packaging changes unify both variants in Coca-Cola red as part of the company’s commercial strategy to encourage more people to try Coca-Cola Zero Sugar.
Over half (58%) of the Coca-Cola sold in retail in Great Britain contains no sugar.
A £5m marketing campaign will communicate the changes to consumers, including a 10-second and 30-second TV campaign alongside out-of-home advertising.
An extensive Coca-Cola Zero Sugar sampling campaign will also take place and will see seven million cans sampled by the end of the year.
The colour red
Simon Harrison, customer marketing director at Coca-Cola European Partners GB, said: “For more than 130 years, the colour red has been associated with the great taste and experience of enjoying a Coca-Cola and we want to make it even clearer that you can have that taste and experience with or without sugar.
“Sales of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar have almost doubled in the past two years and we believe this latest change will help us grow it even further and encourage more people to give it a try.”
Earlier this year it was reported that Diet Coke had outsold its original counterpart (£13.7m vs £11.4m in May 2018). This followed the implementation of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy in April.
The Levy was expected to raise £520m a year for school sports funding but, due to reformulation by soft drinks manufacturers, this has been revised to £240m a year.
