By Gary Symons
TLL Editor in Chief
Soft drink giant Coca-Cola is releasing a new limited edition flavor called Coca-Cola Move, in collaboration with Grammy-award winning singer Rosalía.
The release of Move follows other, similar limited edition launches including Starlight, Byte and Dreamworld. Unlike earlier flavors based on Coke, Move and its predecessors don’t have a traditional flavor like cherry Coke, for example. Instead, Coca-Cola says the new beverage is intended to represent a mood or idea, which in this case is the concept of transformation.
That’s where the singer Rosalia comes in, who is known for transforming herself on stage with dramatic costume changes, and also sees herself as being in a constant state of artistic transformation. In her recent album Saoko, Rosalia sings a telling lyric in Spanish: “Eh, yo soy muy mía, yo me transformo, Una mariposa, yo me transformo,” which translates to“I’m very myself, I transform myself, A butterfly, I transform myself.”
Also like the previous releases, the Move flavor is a bit of a mystery. We haven’t tried it here at TLL, but one reporter at CNN wrote, “To this reporter, the zero-sugar version of Move tasted like popcorn. Or, at least, like popcorn-flavored Coke. The beverage is sweet, with buttery caramel notes. It’s hard to say if that’s what the brand was going for, though one could argue that popcorn is really just corn, transformed.”
Another writer who reviewed the new Coke flavor, Jillian Giandurco of EliteDaily, wrote, “It reminds me of a creamy vanilla flavor, almost like a cream soda, but I get the sense there are more flavors at play, too. Intrigued, I take my first sip, and the first thing that comes to mind are Easter candies, specifically Peeps. As I put the pieces together, it dawns on me that the nostalgic scent and the light but present flavor I’m experiencing may be marshmallows.”
More important than the flavor, at least to people in licensing, is the way Coca-Cola has partnered with the enigmatic pop star and with other companies to create buzz around its limited edition, conceptual flavors.
For example, Byte debuted on the video game/metaverse platform Fortnite, while Dreamworld buyers could purchase virtual merchandise for their online avatars. The flavor Starlight featured a QR code on the container that gave customers access to a holographic Ava Max concert.
Similarly, the Move can also has a QR code that links buyers to a variety of behind-the-scenes content, including a Rosalia playlist, a personality quiz that helps create a 3D avatar, a launch video, and so on.
Perhaps most impressively, however, Rosalia’s latest hit single, “Lie Like You Love Me,” released in late January, was actually created with the Coke flavor in mind. It is the Spanish singer’s first song to feature a section entirely in English, “Lie Like You Love Me” (stylized as “LLYLM”), is also the first song to be released alongside a Coca-Cola Creations innovation.
The partnership marks another important step in brands partnering in innovative licensing deals with musicians. For example, the donut and coffee chain Tim Hortons partnered with Canadian pop mega star Justin Bieber for its hugely successful TimBiebs, which were basically a version of TimBits branded to the musician. Not to be outdone, McDonald’s has partnered with a number of high profile musicians, including a very lucrative deal with the K-Pop band BTS.
Coca-Cola itself has also worked with a musician in the past, having created a Coke flavor with the masked celebrity DJ Marshmello.
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