COCA-COLA + KROGER
Brand Store
Role: Creative Director
Refresh: Early Spring 2021
Throughout the year, my team partnered with Coca-Cola and Kroger to update the beverage giant’s presence on the grocery chain’s website. Each refresh required shooting several recipes featuring Coke products in fresh, at-home moments of daily life.
BETTER FOR YOU MEALS
We captured these New Years Resolution-ready meals that depict a healthy lunch in a sunbright kitchen. Every image has a pop of color and highlights the produce that makes these recipes firmly part of the “better for you” category.
Moodboard + Palette
Styling:
Bright, colorful photography highlighted produce items within each recipe and signals to consumers that these recipes are fresher and lighter options.
We styled the kitchen with minimalist accessories against a marble surface that put the vibrant ingredients of these “better for you” recipes in center stage.
For recipes with less vibrant colors (usually meat), we made them pop more against bright colored dishes and colorful garnishes that matched the Coca-Cola products.
Marble Surface
Brand Store Page
For the Early Spring 2021 refresh, we tackled a new template format using the Together Tastes Better theme from the quarantine-ready concept the year before. Our photoshoot needed to look like a natural extension of existing creative, while still bringing something fresh to the kitchen table.
THE GAME AT HOME
Normally, this season’s shoot would have been March Madness themed and heavy with basketball motifs and implications of big parties hosted at home. Due of lack of assurances that scheduled games would go as planned in 2021, these photos did not include sports-specific imagery. Instead, styling was “Team Coke” with a dark, blue countertop and darker accessories to make food and Coke branding gleam against the surface.
Moodboard
Styling:
Everything was casual finger food and looked like it was being served at a home kitchen for a small gathering.
Warmer-toned, late afternoon lighting made the food more appealing with highlights to make proteins appear the freshest. Shadows added the sense that the light is coming from behind the food, as if from a window.
Grey and darker kitchen accessories let the recipes and Coke be the star in this shoot.
The denim-colored surface and bright reds equally represented the Kroger and Coke brands
Denim Surface
Brand Store Page
The Together Tastes Better campaign continued for this brand page. These photos needed to fit with the home viewing occasion photos that already existed, but bring in a Kroger element as well.
Creative Considerations
We worked consistently with marketing coordinators at Coca-Cola throughout the process and included the Coca-Cola team on the day of shoot remotely with a dedicated Slack channel for real-time feedback.
I communicated with the photographer, food stylist, and client ahead of the shoot and walked them through a production book that detailed products needed for the day-of as well as a detailed schedule.
We shot all 12 images, including 10 separate recipes and 2 group photos in two days.
Our team included a retoucher for updating not-yet-available product labels and last minute cleanup. We prepared for this by taking shots of blank surfaces and individual plates for easier compositing.