Silence is Not an Option
Wearing a Coca-Cola sweater and even Coke high heels, Wendy Clark, President of Sparkling Brands and Strategic Marketing for Coca-Cola North America, stated in her keynote address at 4A's recent Talent@2030 that “If you will accept with me that everything has changed, what do we have to do? We have to change everything. You can’t operate in this very different world with very traditional capabilities. It’s not going to work.” As the world is slowly being replaced by digital natives, we need to appreciate that they have only two states: they're either connected or they're asleep.
To a packed crowd of C-Suite professionals, Clark spoke with conviction on how brands need to be front and center of the public narrative. “The first thing we’ve learned: In a socially networked world, silence is not an option. If you are silent, your truth will be filled in for you,” she said. To illustrate the point, she compared how long it took the company to respond to the outcry over new Coke back in 1985: 72 days. Today, she said the reaction would have to be closer to 72 minutes. As a result, Clark advised everyone to empower their teams to move in the moment. "Speed trumps perfection."