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The Evolution of Coca-Cola & USO’s 81-Year Partnership

The podcast is taking a summer vacation after today’s episode and will be back in August!

In today’s episode, EFG’s Alli Murphy is joined by Carla Deegan, Sr. Manager of Community Marketing at The Coca-Cola Company, and Ian Wright, Global Gaming Community Manager for the USO to talk about their long history of partnership and most recent peer-to-peer gaming fundraisers.

In 1941, the USO and The Coca-Cola Company became partners during WWII. Since then, the ways in which they support service members have changed, but their goals have not. The trio dive into how their partnership started, how it’s evolved over time and what’s led to their recent P2P fundraisers.

Since Military Appreciation Month in May of 2021, they’ve partnered together on three peer-to-peer gaming fundraisers that have raised $400,000. $200,000 of that from fundraising and $200,00 through Coca-Cola’s dollar-for-dollar match.

In today’s episode, we’ll explore:

  • How their gaming platform is both a fundraiser and a mission delivery tool for USO
  • How Coca-Cola’s involvement grew from a simple match & logo into a true partner in this initiative
  • Why the partners choose to work with smaller influencers as opposed to large creators
  • 4 things to do when you work with creators
  • How gaming fits into Coca-Cola’s CSR and business goals
  • How this is all elevating Coca-Cola’s brand presence

Links & Notes

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