Un-Colas will be the hot advertising products this summer. After exhausting all its advertising ammunition on Pepsi for several years, Tempo will now focus on 7 Up, the Un-Cola (a carbonated drink that is not a Cola).
Even though the brand has been on the market since Pepsi arrived in 1992, it received little support from the company. The big bucks are found in the Cola market, so naturally the players focus their attention and budgets there.
Now, for the first time, Tempo will launch a well-funded penetration campaign, of up to $2 million, for the brand. Gitam BBDO has prepared an exhaustive campaign, which will start on billboards and radio, followed in the second stage by television.
This week the country’s billboards will be painted green, the theme of the campaign. Green, the color of 7 Up’s new packaging, conveys a cool message.
Coca Cola Israel (The Central Bottling Co.) which was apprised of Tempo’s plans, isn’t sitting on its laurels. It will counter with an advertising blitz for its own Un-Cola: Sprite. The theme of the campaign, "Forget the ads - when you’re thirsty drink Sprite", met with a degree of consumer antagonism last year. The company quickly dropped the full slogan and used only the ending.
The fact that this year the company is using the original slogan is surprising. Assessments are that Coca Cola is faced with a dilemma since it doesn’t really want to substantially strengthen Sprite. That would hurt sales of Cola, a classic case of cannibalization which market leaders always fear. In any case, Coca Cola will add billboards to the campaign next week.