Live from PMA Law Conference: Finding the Way in Pop Culture

Coca-Cola is about as well known and, arguably, as embedded in pop culture as a brand can get. It’s lengthy, integrated sponsorship deal with American Idol and the uncanny interest generated by online videos of a couple of guys mixing Mentos and Diet Coke have set the pace.

Even so, it considers the position to be a blessing and a curse, James Dudukovich, marketing counsel with Coca-Cola North America, said yesterday during a panel discussion.

“The blessing is, we’re big enough to try a lot of different things,” he said. “The curse is to try to find new things and to pick the right things to do.”

The days are long gone where brands relied solely on making the most of a 30-second commercial that would catch people’s attention and make an impression, Dudukovich said. While TV spots still play a role for Coca-Cola, the focus has turned to Internet marketing and finding a way to seed messaging in cyberspace where target consumers are going to be, and to do so in a way that doesn’t intrude upon their online experience, he said.

Dudukovich declined to specify budget numbers, but said that the 2007 interactive budget for Coke North America for 2007 is “huge, probably five times what was spent last year.”

“Now, we’re at a point where consumers don’t want to be forced to watch or hear anything,” he said. “And so what we as an advertiser or a marketer have to try to do is to find ways to get acceptable, compelling messaging in front of consumers in a way that won’t offend them.”

He said one of the challenges is formulating legal agreements to keep pace with the changing media and the volume of consumer-generated content.

“The conventions that we had in place were not made for what we’re looking at now, for the way that messaging gets out there and the way we communicate with consumers,” he said.

Polo Ralph Lauren is “sticking its toe in the water” with new media, said Sherry Jetter, vice president of intellectual property and legal affairs.

And with consumers generating all kinds of content, even unlawful, that frequently incorporates brands, attorneys need to be paying attention, said moderator Craig Emanuel, a partner with Loeb & Loeb.

“It is very new and very scary,” Jetter said. “We just have to be out there monitoring what’s going on looking at the Internet and looking at the new media to see if our brand is being used in inappropriate, unauthorized ways. Right now what we have at our fingertips is traditional trademark infringement cases or copyright infringement cases.”

The PMA Law Conference which is being held in Chicago ends today.