Сoca-Cola is reorganizing its prime hub, www.thecoca-colacompany.com, to make it fit into the modern digital environment, shifting from the corporate website image to an online magazine positioning. According to The New York Times, the update is described by the company’s executives “as the most ambitious digital project they have undertaken.” The scope of subjects to be covered on the reimagined platform is ranging from entertainment, the environment, health and sports to corporate announcements, the website will also feature press releases as well as opinion columns, interviews, video, audio and photo content.
Photo: Announcement image of the redesigned Coca-Cola’s website (click to enlarge)
The revamped website, “a multimillion-dollar effort over multiyears,” is named Coca-Cola Journey after a printed magazine named Journey, which was issued for the company’s employees for 10 years, from 1987 to 1997. To sync with the magazine style, the new hub will include longer articles highlighted on the loading page just like they do in traditional paper media with cover ups. Since the current version of the website contains loads of important information, the major content such as biographies of executives, investor information, job postings and news releases will be preserved.
The website, which was launched back in 1995 and last redesigned in 2005, now has an audience of nearly 1.2 million unique visitors a month—it will show its new, revamped face today, on November 12. The re-designed platform will be working as a real magazine, four full-time employees, 40 freelance writers and photographers as well as “people throughout the Coke system, in marketing and public relations” are working to provide content for the hub.
“My team, the digital communications and social media team, has been re-formed in the last year to look more like an editorial team at a long-lead magazine, with a production schedule and an editorial calendar,” shared Ashley Brown, director for digital communications and social media at the Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta. “We are acting as newshounds in the organization. It’s very much like at a newspaper or a magazine.” The website will also feature pieces in its opinion columns which might be not supporting Coca-Cola’s view on some issues—on the top of these articles, Coke will write that it doesn’t totally agree with the content contributor, and may also write a counterpoint. “I’m sure we’re going to make mistakes, and readers are going to tell us,” he added.