We mean business: How we’ve been supporting British people and businesses in 2020
We’ve been doing our bit throughout 2020 to try and mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 crisis in whatever ways we can.
2020-12-09
The hospitality sector has been hit hard this year, and we know it’s not over yet. It’s why we’ve already invested £20 million in hundreds of businesses across the country, and why we’ll still be here for them no matter what the future holds. Their success is our success, so we’re proud to support British businesses through thick and thin.
In fact, we’ve been doing our bit throughout 2020 to try and mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 crisis in whatever ways we can. If you’re wondering how, read on to find out what we’ve been up to…
1. Pressing ‘pause’ on our advertising
From April, when COVID-19 restrictions started to take hold in the Great Britain, we announced that we were putting commercial advertising for Coca‑Cola and all our brands on hold in order to better direct our efforts towards supporting our people and communities.
Together with Coca‑Cola European Partners, that meant signing up to the C19 Business Pledge, joining over 200 businesses and organisations in mobilising collective efforts to support those in need – and to help to rebuild over the medium to long term.
2. Supporting key workers and feeding the vulnerable with FareShare
Here in Great Britain, together with our bottler, Coca‑Cola European Partners, we’ve been answering the need for drink donations wherever possible. So far, we’ve donated more than 1.5 million drinks to front line workers, food banks and NHS Nightingale Hospitals across the country.
We know that these efforts in isolation are not enough, though, so we also reached out to our charity partners – like FareShare, the UK’s biggest food redistribution charity – to ask how we could help support health workers and vulnerable groups.
Together with Coca‑Cola European Partners and The Coca‑Cola Foundation, we’ve been supporting FareShare throughout 2020 to provide the equivalent of nearly two million healthy meals and one million drinks to vulnerable people via its network of more than 11,000 charities and community groups across Great Britain.
We also partnered with UberEats to cover delivery fees for a month, and with Deliveroo to help give NHS workers free vouchers for delivered meals, and we’re supporting Neighbourly’s Community Fund, to help vulnerable people across the country get access to food and vital medical supplies.
3. Boosting local businesses with marketing
This summer, we helped pubs and bars prepare for re-opening by gifting 30,000 pieces of sanitation equipment to 25,500 outlets, and by lending them one of our most important tools: a powerful marketing and advertising platform.
From The Old Queen’s Head in Sheffield to Funky Flamingo in Southampton, we used our platform and expertise to offer financial support, advertising space, and business mentorship to cafés, pubs, restaurants and hotels right across Great Britain.
We’re keenly aware how important marketing and advertising are when it comes to growing a successful business. We also know that many small business owners have been struggling to survive and don’t have the time or budget to promote their business.
So, as part of our Open Like Never Before campaign, we devised up a programme to equip small businesses with the necessary tools, resources and budget to increase footfall as they reopened – including an innovative Ad Generator platform, which provided the resources and expertise to create their own personalised adverts to share on social media.
4. Helping retailers and restaurants get back on their feet
With guidelines changing all the time, we know small businesses need to be ready to close or reopen at a moment’s notice. As such, we’ve provided our customers with a range of our products free of charge, allowing venues to restock without adding to their cashflow burden. We’ve also reviewed our payment terms to help our customers better manage the impact of lockdown.
On top of this is the creation of a £165,000 Coca‑Cola Community Pub Fund, giving this year’s 15 Great British Pub Awards winners the opportunity to apply for a grant of £10,000 to fund a business improvement or to support a local community project.
We’re proud to be playing a role in the country’s gradual recovery from the pandemic, and we’ll continue to provide support in any way we can as the hospitality sector reopens its doors and starts to welcome back local communities.
In other words? When it comes to supporting the British hospitality sector, we mean business.
5. Inspiring people to be Open To Better
Through our new campaign, ‘Open To Better’, we want to inspire people to find hope and optimism in the new year, despite the tough times we’ve experienced in much of 2020. The campaign sees our iconic Coca‑Cola logo removed from our packaging to be replaced with a series of resolutions encouraging our fans to reflect on 2020 and look ahead to how we can all be ‘Open To Better’ in 2021.
Get your limited-edition ‘Open To Better’ packs of Coca‑Cola Original Taste, Coca‑Cola zero sugar and Diet Coke available in stores across the UK – and via our new online store – in January, and share positive, inspiring messages – and your favourite Coca‑Cola beverage – with your loved ones.