Embrace the soft drink opportunities afforded by Christmas

At this time of the year for our industry it’s much like marathon training with the tapering in November before the race to the finish line in December. This is all to the backdrop of Fairytale of New York accompanied by tills ringing, corks popping and iconic bottles fizzing.

We don’t need to trouble the Harvard consultants to know that the holiday season is a massive opportunity for us all, especially soft drinks. There are two very key audiences we need to connect with, firstly those who choose not to drink and don’t change their mind during the

festivities and secondly our designated driver heroes. Both find themselves out in pubs more often, so making sure they are well catered for with a good, well-served range of soft drinks is paramount.

If the latter group is ignored it can mean an early night for the rest of the party, let’s not forget they have the keys to the chariot.

Ninth year helping the trade​

The Coca-Cola Designated Driver programme is now in its ninth year helping the trade increase the dwell time for the whole group while promoting responsible messages around drinking and driving.

And no, it’s not just on the Coca-Cola range – Appletiser and Schweppes Sparkling Juice Drinks are part of the buy-one-get-one-free offer too. All in all a great opportunity to keep customers happy and the Christmas cheer flowing.

Within this Designated Driver issue of The Morning Advertiser​, find out why publicans run this scheme year in and year out on pages 50-53, get tips on what soft drinks to serve during the festive season on pages 34-37 and hear from our out-of-home director Rob Harris on how we’re communicating our Designated Driver initiative to consumers to drive footfall into participating venues on pages 28-31.

Enjoy the issue and for all those designated drivers out there, cheers for being a hero!

Paul Grace, Coca-cola European Partners GB sales director, guest edited the Designated Driver issue of The Morning Advertiser.​