4: 21st Century Research: How Coca-Cola moved to real-time campaign tracking
That Coca-Cola drink certainly is quenching consumer thirst in the moment. Just like consumers enjoy their drinks now, marketers at Coca-Cola understand consumer feedback in real-time as well. Welcome to the 21st Century.
On Episode 4 of “Research Revolutionaries,” James (JT) Turner is joined by Greg Pharo, senior global director, holistic communications and marketing effectiveness at The Coca-Cola Company. They dive into how the team has moved into the 21st century and unlocks marketing effectiveness through real-time campaign tracking.
Topics discussed include:
- Greg Pharo's background and career in research and analytics at various companies.
- Changes Greg has seen over his career, including the increasing speed of analytics, connecting data across silos, and the shift to data and insights being at the forefront.
- The global programs Greg runs at Coca-Cola, including the "Excite" real-time campaign tracking program across 50+ countries and the challenges of scaling.
- The importance of technology in enabling faster insights, standing out amidst clutter, and providing granular understanding by combining data sources.
- How real-time data from Excite allows Coca-Cola to optimize campaigns in-flight and examples of how it has provided valuable insights.
- Coca-Cola's use of AI over the past 20 years in areas like market mix modeling, virtual copy testing, generative AI for creative development, and the "Learn x" AI system for creative asset optimization.
- The experimental approach, risks, and tradeoffs involved in pioneering new AI technologies.
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Greg Pharo
Sr Director
Greg Pharo: Global Senior Director, Communications & Marketing Effectiveness
The Coca-Cola Company
Greg Pharo is global senior director of communications & marketing effectiveness for The Coca-Cola Company. He heads worldwide communications, advertising & media diagnostics and data services for the world's leading beverage company, helping Coke maximize its return on marketing investment. His responsibilities include media analytics and optimization, advertising and messaging research, and holistic communications best practices. He also co-chairs the Measurement and Accountability Committee for the ANA-Association of National Advertisers.
He’s a recognized expert in advertising insights, forecasting, earned media analytics, ad copy assessment and marketing ROI. Greg has pioneered advances in the marketing analytics field with new-to-the-world mix modeling and multitouch attribution techniques for measuring media’ impact on sales and brand perception. He also invented market mix modeling techniques to measure mass advertising’s ability to reduce customer churn. Most recently Greg co-developed artificial intelligence techniques for predicting ad performance prior to airing.
Greg is a graduate of Emory University where he received both bachelors and MBA degrees. Prior to joining Coca-Cola he worked in marketing and finance at AT&T, Siemens, Georgia-Pacific and Kodak.
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