Advertising Should Be More like Skateboarding, “Compete Ferociously but Help Each Other Up”, Says Coca-Cola’s Islam ElDessouky

Said to be the largest global signing in advertising to date, WPP’s 2021 appointment as The Coca-Cola Company’s agency partner has seen the brand achieve impressive quarterly growth with latest figures indicating a share price increase of 24%, market capital increase of $130 billion, and revenue increase of $12 billion.

“But it takes two to tango,” stated Islam ElDessouky, global VP of creative strategy and content at Coca-Cola. “Our success comes from our partnership with WPP. We’re all in it together. This is not a transaction and we hate the words ‘client’ and ‘agency’. We’re all wearing the same jersey, we’re all team Coca-Cola.”

The secret to what makes their partnership “revolutionary” lies within the agency’s title itself, Islam said. “It’s being ‘open’. That means open possibilities, open resources, open minds and open relationships. WPP is an absolute rock star in sharing its knowledge. It reminds me of the skateboarding community who I am super inspired by. At the skate park, everyone helps and teaches each other how to get better. When they compete, they compete ferociously, but if one of them gets injured, everybody helps. I think other industries need to learn from that.”

His comments came on a panel discussion about partnership on the LBB Beach in Cannes, alongside WPP Open X’s global CEO, Laurent Ezekiel who shared that by the time the pitch was won (a year in the making), “it felt like Coca-Cola was already in my blood. I’d spent so much time thinking about the model, the partnership, the people and the brands.”

WPP works with 200 brands under The Coca-Cola Company in 195 countries across nine regions. “Some of those regions, like Europe with its over 40 countries, are massively complex, so we devised a model that was both rigid and open,” Laurent said.

With a brand as large as this and new work coming out every week, the agency set up Studio X, an in-house content engine focused on creating data-driven, personalised marketing content. Laurent explained, “Studio X gives us 12 capabilities integrated across our nine regions. Each region has its own studio for commerce, creative, data and production – and that's where the day-to-day work is created once the ideas have been fleshed out. That's how we manage scale. Looking back, I don't see how else you could do it. I don't see how you run something this big, without a tool like this in your toolbox.”

The brand’s work across the globe led to Coca-Cola being named ‘Creative Brand of the Year’ at last year’s Cannes Lions. Speaking on what recognition like this means to him, Islam said, “It’s really important because it reaffirms belief in creativity. I think everybody here [at Cannes] believes that creativity is not something fancy or shiny. It's a discipline. It's a superpower that solves problems and moves the whole world forward. Winning awards is a testament of the work that we do as creators. It matters a lot for businesses, for humans and for the whole ecosystem that we live in.

“However, I believe award shows are much more important for helping you win creative market share rather than the award itself,” he added. “Creative market share helps people believe in our purpose more, and therefore want to do more and more business with us.”

Reflecting on this business success, Islam highlighted the brand’s legacy of being “timeless and timely," adding, "the brand is so well defined, so well established. It stands for connection. It stands for positivity – and the world needs a lot of positivity at the moment. So we need to rise up and act accordingly.

“In terms of being timely – there's a lot happening. The curiosity, the humility, the unlearning, keeps us going in a very humble, grounded and fresh way that keeps this brand growing and growing.”

As a final note on the future of the partnership, Laurent said “We want to do more scaled ideas and be more ambitious. We also want to keep growing each other's businesses at the same time. I need to grow my business, and Islam needs to grow his. So we just want to reach new heights with more work that endures.”