Nectar Purple Coke Can Campaign

Diet Coke is a well-loved staple in the UK. To stay culturally relevant the brand needed to spark fresh excitement, both with loyal and a new generation of customers.

With the introduction of Nectar Prices, a loyalty-driven pricing initiative that delivers exceptional value, it created the perfect moment to build a campaign that made the value feel tangible while deepening customer connection with the brand.

• Increase awareness and engagement, making Diet Coke a hot topic both in-store 
and online
• Excite loyal shoppers and attract new ones
• Drive clear, measurable commercial impact through uplift in sales performance
• Strengthen Diet Coke’s role as a cultural icon within the UK soft drinks market

Diet Coke’s core audience remained loyal, but it was declining. Meanwhile Coca-Cola’s focus on Coke Zero targeted younger consumers, especially during a summer dominated by football and competing campaigns. Diet Coke needed a fresh, standout approach to re-engage its customer base, attract new shoppers, and create a cultural moment that would cut through the noise.

The creative challenge was clear: how do you make a familiar product feel rare, desirable, and worth seeking out?

The idea was simple and bold. Make Diet Coke so rare it sparked a frenzy. Instead of a typical seasonal pack, we treated Diet Coke like an exclusive collector’s item, hand-painting just 100 purple cans, each hidden in Sainsbury’s multipacks and offering a chance to win £100 in Nectar points. The distinctive purple, matching Nectar’s branding, made the partnership instantly recognisable and meaningful.

We used insight from our 22 billion rows of data at the heart of the strategy to help us shape our approach. Diet Coke’s loyal UK audience was our foundation, but we wanted to re-engage lapsed shoppers and attract new ones. The limited-edition created authentic exclusivity, while our full-funnel approach made the product unmissable – dominating in-store, digital, and social, and extending across ecommerce and promotional touchpoints. Our digital-first targeting aligned Sainsbury’s transactional data with Coca-Cola’s consumption insights, creating bespoke audiences and maximising engagement.

Execution was meticulously planned across every channel: in-store, online, out-of-home, and social. We built anticipation with teasers and influencer content, drove engagement with targeted offers, and created physical moments of discovery in-store. Despite running for just three weeks, the campaign’s impact was monumental – stock ran out within days, demand far exceeded supply, and the overwhelming response reinforced the strength of our creative and strategic approach.