Coca-Cola has turned to "mommy bloggers" in South Korea to create word-of-mouth communication. The company is looking for powerful bloggers who are important local "digital influencers," said Kenth Kaerhoeg, group communications director for Coca-Cola's Pacific Group in Hong Kong. This year, Coca-Cola began hosting parties in Seoul at hip locations like Lacuisine restaurant for 10 or so young bloggers who have "clout with youngsters and cover the topics that interest them the most. The party was to build a new partnership with the young bloggers. Coke is thinking about replicating the South Korea effort in other Asian markets. In Seoul, bloggers are introduced to the company and probed about ways Coke can better communicate with local bloggers, especially young mothers, as a way to get Korean families talking about -- and hopefully drinking -- more Coke. South Korea is an ideal place to experiment with social media. About 43% of South Korea's population maintains an online profile or blog site, while 9 out of 10 twentysomething Koreans log onto social-networking sites daily.
