Coca-Cola India's brand marketing spends to be highest-ever in H2

After 'challenging summer', Coca-Cola India expects strong demand in H2

With the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s Cricket World Cup coinciding with the festival season, Coca-Cola said on Friday that it expects to see buoyant consumer demand in the second half (H2) of the year.

The beverage major is boosting its brand marketing investment in the country to push demand.

“We have started activations around festivals like Ganpati in Maharashtra and Durga Puja in West Bengal. This is going to result in one of our biggest investments in Q3 and Q4 in the history of our company in India,” said Arnab Roy, vice-president, marketing, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia.

“We are also doing similar festival activations in neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The Q4 spends, as a percentage of the overall spends in a year, are close to 5-7 per cent higher than what we would do in a normal year,” he added during a media roundtable.

The company, however, did not share any absolute investment figures.

According to data accessed by business intelligence platform Tofler, Coca-Cola India’s advertising promotional expenses were at Rs 737.97 crore in FY22, PTI reported.

Coca-Cola, which is the official non-alcoholic beverage partner for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, has activated its ThumsUp and Limca Sportz brands for the event, alongside Sprite.

“The Cricket World Cup is the largest sporting event and an important platform to leverage to continue the business momentum that has been positive for some time now,” Roy said.

The company has also sealed a sponsorship agreement worth Rs 150-160 crore with the event’s official streaming platform — Disney+Hotstar, sources told Business Standard.

With low-barrier moments for spending like festivals, “consumers tend to spend more. We have also seen inflation cooling down and that will give rise to sales of affordable packs,” he added.

The company, which saw its Q2 business impacted by unseasonal rains, continues to be hopeful of strong demand in the second half.

“We had a challenging summer, but the long-term metrics are looking good,” said Roy.

He added that, “Demand continues to be strong and we don’t see it slowing down in the coming months. Based on the trends, we are seeing in both Q3 and early days of Q4, we feel very positive and encouraged about the way we will end this year.”