Soft drinks giant Coca-Cola has created its first trademark flavour innovations in over a decade, announcing that it will roll out with the new Orange Vanilla Coke and Orange Vanilla Coke Zero Sugar in the US nationwide on 25 February.
Kate Carpenter, brand director, Coca-Cola, said, “What we realised is that we had a diamond in the rough when we looked at our flavours portfolio. The growth of Cherry Coke and Vanilla Coke – and their zero-calorie variants – has been really strong in recent years even with very limited marketing support. This showed us our fans want choice but are getting it outside the Coke Trademark. We knew we had an opportunity to give fans the variety they crave without sacrificing the Coca-Cola taste they love.”
The soft drinks giant considered three other flavours – raspberry, lemon and ginger – but settled on the combination of orange and vanilla when they emerged as the most chosen flavours in their focus groups. Coke Orange No Sugar was launched in Australia during summer and Coke Orange Vanilla was made available in Canada, and both were huge hits with consumers.
“We wanted to bring back positive memories of carefree summer days. That’s why we leaned into the orange-vanilla flavour combination – which is reminiscent of the creamy orange popsicles we grew up loving, but in a classically Coke way,” Carpenter said. “Our brief for the campaign was to have fun with flavours. We think this work brings to life the Coca-Cola personality in a playful, unexpected way.”
New Orange Vanilla Coke and Orange Vanilla Coke Zero Sugar will be available in 12 oz. cans and 20 oz. PET bottles. The new flavour will also be available exclusively at Wendy’s restaurants during the end of the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament before rolling out nationally across all Freestyle units.
While the 12 oz. sleek cans of Orange Vanilla Coke, Orange Vanilla Coke Zero Sugar, Cherry Coke and Cherry Coke Zero Sugar will be available for a limited time. Coke Orange Vanilla and Cherry Coke also will be offered in half-liter 6-packs.
Consumers will see the updated names of Coca-Cola Cherry Zero (now Coca-Cola Cherry Zero Sugar), Coca-Cola Vanilla Zero (now Coca-Cola Vanilla Zero Sugar) and Caffeine-Free Coke Zero (now Caffeine-Free Coke Zero Sugar) in the US.
“We realised our flavours were hiding in plain sight,” Carpenter added. “So we want Cherry Coke and Vanilla Coke to come along for the ride and be top of mind for variety seekers.”
