Dive Brief:
- Coca-Cola is bringing together more than a dozen of its food service partners for a new “And a Coke” national campaign, per details shared with Marketing Dive.
- Three 30-second spots demonstrate how diverse customers at different chains, including Domino’s, Popeyes and Wendy’s, are united by their beverage orders.
- The campaign reasserts Coke as the beverage of choice at fast-food chains and counters years of marketing from rival Pepsi that has positioned that soda as a better pairing for food.
Dive Insight:
For the first time, Coca-Cola is bringing together some of its major food service partners for a campaign that positions the soda as the beverage of choice at most QSR spots, across categories including pizza, burgers, sandwiches and chicken. Arby’s, Culver’s, Domino’s, Five Guys, Jack in the Box, Jimmy John’s, Panda Express, Popeyes, Sonic, Wendy’s, Whataburger, White Castle and Wingstop are featured in the campaign.
Three 30-second spots demonstrate the range of restaurants and consumers that are united by their Coke orders. “Tricky Orders” features a Midwest mom and a gamer; “Evening Eats” includes a country-western crew, a gang of greasers and face-painted death metal fans; and “Drive Thru Orders” spotlights skateboarding stoners, bikers and a soccer mom, among others.
“And a Coke” will launch in cinemas on April 3 before rolling out across linear, digital, social and in delivery platforms including Uber Eats and DoorDash starting in mid-April. The campaign was created by WPP Open X, led by Ogilvy and supported by WPP Production, in collaboration with Publicis and Zeno Group.
The campaign is built on Coca-Cola’s long-standing food service bona fides. The soda giants leads the U.S. market across more than 500,000 food service locations including restaurants, hotels, movie theaters and amusement parks. Notably, the ads do not include Popeyes sister brand Burger King or McDonald’s, the fast-food titan that has been partnered with Coke since 1955 — demonstrating its prevalence beyond market leaders.
“Foodservice has always been at the heart of Coca-Cola’s story, from our origins at a single soda fountain to the extensive scale at which we operate today across North America,” said Dagmar Boggs, president of food service and on-premise, North America, at The Coca-Cola Company, in a statement.
The campaign taps into Coke’s food service leadership and strong customer preference, with more than 90% of Coca-Cola drinkers not trading to Pepsi if their first choice wasn’t available, per a Beverage & Cuisine Pairing Study cited by the brand. Pepsi for several years iterated a “Better with Pepsi” platform that sought to establish the soda as the superior pairing for food, at burger chains and beyond. The brand’s “Undercover Cups” creative also tied into this idea — a challenger position that Pepsi has embraced for decades.
Coca-Cola in 2025 saw organic revenues grow 5%, per an earnings statement. The company plans to better integrate marketing campaigns with commercial execution at the point of sale to improve recruitment, especially with young adult consumers, executives said on a call around the earnings.
Many of the restaurant chains featured in the “And a Coke” campaign have continued to deliver sluggish sales growth amid an unfavorable economic outlook. Many QSRs have doubled down on pop culture and nostalgia as price-point value marketing becomes table stakes for the category.
