On the Coke side of life, there’s apparently some
hot coffee.
The soda giant has begun marketing a pair of hot
beverages, both a pod-based coffee system called “Far
Coast” for on-premise businesses and a coffee and tea
service dubbed “Chaqwa” for convenience retailers.
The program brewed in Toronto, Oslo and Singapore.
The move is apparently an attempt to leverage on
Coke’s already widespread dispensed vending business.
While there is no consumer-based Far Coast program,
the company is nevertheless opening a few concept
stores to demonstrate the products.
Udaiyan Jatar leads Coca-Cola’s Global Premium
Brewed Beverage business. Who knew Coke even had a premium brewed beverage business? Coke has long
sold coffee drinks in Japan, where Georgia Coffee is
doing very well, but this is almost a food service push.
According to Jatar, “Far Coast was created to provide
[customers] with a window into different cultures
through our range of delicious brews and infusions.”
Far Coast is expected to be offered in the U.S. in the
near future.
Joining it soon? A new PepsiCo/Starbucks joint venture
in hot beverage vending that provides a 9 oz., heatshielded
can from a machine. File under: coffee wars.
BUD.TV
In this Tivo-centric era, no matter how good your advertising, it’s getting
harder to get viewer attention.
Anheuser Busch has decided to deal with this problem by launching its
own network – online. Branded content will deal with sports, beer, chicks,
beer, funny catchphrases, beer, light beer, and beer.
Since things aren’t operational yet – they’re saying Bud.TV will launch
in the spring, we’ve decided to try to help Bud out with its early-stage
programming.
Some show ideas:
1. Married, with Children (Who aren’t really children
anymore, but are of legal drinking age, and
really, really like beer!) – This reality show, featuring
case studies from the Millennial Generation,
follows the stories of millenials who
enjoy beer so much that they’ve decided to
never leave home. Host: Bud Bundy
2. Bush, the Early Years – When he was
young and stupid, he said, he did a
lot of things that were young and
stupid. Guess what? A lot of them
involved beer. Guest starring tennis
great and co-carouser-in-chief
John Newcombe.
3. Real World: St. Louis – A group of
young adults from the Millennial Generation,
recently kicked out of their
parents’ homes, move to St. Louis to
become tour guides at the Budweiser
Brewery.
4. The Spuds McKenzie Cheerleader
Review – In this dramatic,
made-for-Bud.TV movie, an aging
bull terrier, dying of silicon
poisoning, remembers his past
owners.
5. Pardon the Interruption – Sportswriters Tony
Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon, loaded on the
free beer available in the
press box, belch.
6. The Teletubbies – What
happens when Bud-drinking couch potatoes take
a bath.
7. The Joe Namath Celebrity Telethon – “You’re all so
generous! I really want to kiss you!”
PLANNING A DESERT EXPEDITION?
YOU NEED THIS.
Sportline, a company that produces “Personal Fitness Monitors” like
Pedometers and Stopwatches, recently introduced the Hydracoach, a
digital water bottle that actually tells you when you’re less than optimally
hydrated.
Billed as “the first product developed that actually helps people adhere
to the experts’ recommendations for drinking the right amount of water
on a daily basis,” it allows drinkers to track their daily water consumption
on a sip-by-sip basis. Even better, a coaching feature allows the bottle to
actually annoy you if it feels you haven’t been drinking enough.
Trust us. If you actually think you need this product, the problem isn’t
that you haven’t been drinking enough water. It’s that you’ve consumed far
too much of something else, and now you’re drunk.