Diet Coke Begins BroadBranding Campaign

Making use of the current reality-based television craze, Diet Coke has launched a broadband series called What's your 20? at www.dietcoke.com. The series features the adventures of a cookie-cutter blond Virginia girl turned Hollywood, working as a production assistant on a set in Montana. Diet Coke is using the Web as a cost-effective way to distribute an entirely branded entertainment series.

Much like the GoArmy campaign launched last month, the series targets a young audience and seeks to entertain while selling. According to Susan McDermott, a spokeswoman for Diet Coke, the brand has always associated itself with the entertainment world. But this web-based campaign is providing the opportunity to reach out to the younger generation of Diet Coke drinkers that probably don't remember the Paula Abdul commercials of the ‘80s. McDermott states that Diet Coke's target demographic is primarily women ages 18-35.

"We are marrying the heritage with the newness of the Internet," adds McDermott.

In order to draw viewers to the site, Diet Coke is running an advertising campaign and sponsoring several contests around the Web on sites such as www.eonline.com, www.vh1.com and www.blockbuster.com. Diet Coke is also sponsoring eonline's online academy awards show and blockbuster's entertainment awards.

The What's your 20? series was created and produced by Hollywood-based production company Essential Entertainment.