Coca-Cola really wants to reach a younger audience. That’s why it has moved much of its ad spending away from television — a medium it has long dominated — into digital.

The company has at times come off as a little bit needy, for example, when an older divorced man gets a leather jacket and a younger girlfriend or when a conservative elderly billionaire starts hanging out with a young rapper. 

Yes, it’s sort of cool that Robert Kraft knows Meek Mill, but it’s not all that likely that the octogenarian New England Patriots owner has “Litty” or “Ima Boss” on his Spotify playlist.

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Coke’s version of trying to stay relevant has involved two things: online ads and its Coca-Cola Creations beverage platform. The company makes a reasonable case for why it’s moving much of its ad budget to the internet.

“To recruit the next generation of drinkers, our marketing has shifted from a TV-centric model to a digital-first organization that balances local intimacy, scale, and flexibility,” CEO James Quincey said during the company’s fourth-quarter-earnings call. “Our digital mix has gone from less than 30% in 2019 to approximately 60% of our total media spend.” 

That part of the plan makes sense. Young people watch less traditional television than older generations do, so Coca-Cola (KO) has to put its brand where the potential new audience might see it.

But the second part of the equation, Coca-Cola Creations has led to some new beverages that seem more ready-for-Instagram than ready-to-drink.

That’s decidedly true of the soft drink giant’s newest flavor.

Coca-Cola doubles down on digital and innovation

Coca-Cola launched the Creations platform in order to create products that would  appeal to the TikTok and Instagram generations. The company has used it to launch flavors that go far beyond the company’s traditional flavor pilot.

For decades, the drinks giant generally added fruit flavors to its namesake brand and its diet offshoots. Creations has gone in a different direction, with an artificial intelligence-generated flavor, one created by electronic dance music sensation Marshmello, and one in partnership with Riot Games.

The company described its vision for the beverage-creation studio in a 2022 news release.

“Coca-Cola Creations will take the iconic Coca-Cola trademark and lend it to new expressions, driven by collaboration, creativity, and cultural connections,” it said. “Through limited-edition, sequential releases, Coca-Cola Creations will introduce new products and experiences across physical and digital worlds.” 

The brand’s latest Creations flavor takes the iconic brand someplace it has never been before. 

Coca-Cola has a new limited-edition flavor

When you think of soda, you generally think sweet and maybe a little sour when you add in certain fruit flavors. Coca-Cola’s latest Creations flavor will bring a new flavor into the mix: a take on Coke that will have a kick of salt.

“Coca-Cola Creations ‘Happy Tears’ Zero Sugar’ is described as Coca-Cola Zero Sugar ‘coupled with a splash of salty minerals, to evoke the happy tears which come with magical moments of kindness,'” the Soda Seekers Instagram page reported.

It’s a promotion that will be available only in Coca-Cola’s TikTok shop and it’s clearly meant to be a collectible.

Happy Tears will be sold beginning Feb. 17 as part of a kit. Priced at $9.99, the package “includes two 12oz cans of the cola, along with a piece of apparel, themed tissues, and a sticker pack. Only 7,750 kits will be available as part of this release,” according to Soda Seekers.

This introduction fits within Coca-Cola’s broader release plan, which included the recent addition of Coke Spiced.

“I mean Coke Spiced, a bit like Coke Creations, not exactly, but it’s really aimed at increasing connectivity with Gen Z and the broader water consumers, driving engagement, driving reconsideration,” Quincey said. 

“It’s part of a whole overall strategy that, as you say, we’ve been deploying for a good number of years that has really worked to reengage consumers with the Coke trademark.” 

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