Brand Coca-Cola goes from strength to strength. Its distinctive red branding and cursive writing is instantly recognisable. And its the bedrock of The Coca-Cola Company, which performs strongly through think and thin (the drinks company reported 5% organic growth in 2025).
But it’s never been about the logo alone.
Always Coca-Cola
Andrew Vucko is founder and ECD at Vucko, an agency dedicated to the importance of motion in branding. He points out that the cues we associate with Coca-Cola go well beyond the pack itself.
Such as? “A bottle opening. The sound of a pour. The fizz of carbonation,” he elaborates. “The red ribbon flowing across a pack or screen. The ritual of going to the fridge, grabbing a bottle or can, opening it, drinking it and feeling that first moment of satisfaction.”
Start with the bottle. In 1915, the contour bottle was designed to be identifiable by touch alone.
In 1969, that physical logic evolved into the Dynamic Ribbon Device, the fluid white curve derived from the contour of their classic bottle.
In the 1970s, sound designer Suzanne Ciani turned the opening bottle, pour and carbonation into a repeatable sonic vocabulary.
“Coca-Cola is not alone,” says Vucko. “It has led the way, but drinks brands have, for many years, recognised the commercial value of distinctive behaviour: stronger recall, more consistent experiences across channels and greater distinctiveness in a crowded category.
“As consumers spend more time engaging with brands through screens, motion has become one of the primary ways those behaviours are expressed.”
Screens and internet
In 2026, brands now compete in an increasingly dynamic environment. Audiences encounter brands in apps, e-commerce experiences, social feeds, or retail screens. Video continues to be one of the strongest drivers of engagement and ROI: one survey found 82% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a video.
“This is taking the importance of motion to a whole new level,” says Vucko. “The strongest brands aren’t recognised because of any single asset. They’re recognised because they repeatedly reinforce the same behaviours across every interaction, using motion, sound, imagery and ritual to build memory over time. It’s easy to say, and easy to see how Coke is doing that, but replicating that success is not easy.”
So how can brands learn from Coca-Cola?
More than an accessory
The first step is treating motion as a strategic part of the brand rather than a finishing touch.
“Many businesses have realised that motion is important, but they still treat it as something that arrives after the strategy and toolkit have been approved,” says Vucko.
“That can produce assets, but it rarely produces a living system.”
That gap between product and marketing is where brand systems can fracture.
“A social post might move beautifully, but bear little relation to the way the brand behaves in retail or packaging.
“When motion is treated as an add-on rather than part of the system, it can create fragmentation instead of recognition.
“If movement doesn’t connect back to the core of the brand, consumers will lose the emotional thread that links one brand experience to the next, making it harder to build familiarity and long-term brand equity.”
Motion should be approached in the same way as tone of voice, colour, typography or packaging. Brands invest in those elements because they elicit a response. They tell people something about the brand, and movement does the same thing.
“If motion is left too late, it becomes much harder to create meaningful impact,” said Vucko.
“Brands should look at the behaviours they’ve already established, how those behaviours show up today and where they want the brand to go in the future.
“Do you want to feel playful or precise? Warm or premium? Calm or disruptive? Before motion can be effective, brands need clarity on the qualities they want to express. That requires an introspective process, whether through workshops, discovery sessions or broader brand conversations. Motion and sound can then be developed as part of that core behavioural language.”
Think in behaviours
Once motion is embedded in the strategy, the next step is to focus on the behaviours.
“Many legacy brands have built their motion and sound around behaviours that can adapt to changes in technology, media and culture,” said Vucko.
“Coca-Cola’s use of motion and sound work because it maps to experiences people already recognise. Opening. Pouring. Fizzing. Sharing. Satisfaction.
Motion from form
Even static images can create the sense of motion.
"IBM’s design language has long carried a sense of movement and progression even when expressed in still form: its logo lines were intended to communicate speed and dynamism," says Vucko.
"Disney has built enormous equity around gestures, movement, arcs and sound to create moments that people recognise almost instinctively."
And new brands have a blank state to create their own sense of movement.
“The category is already full of physical rituals: opening, pouring, shaking, mixing, chilling, serving, sharing and sipping,” says Vucko.
“The opportunity is to identify which of those rituals belong uniquely to the brand, then build motion and sound around them consistently.
“When motion is built from accumulated behaviour, recognition isn’t created. It’s recalled.”
Creating systems beyond the campaign
However, there’s one crucial point to remember. Motion identity can’t thrive in isolation: it’s only as good as the system built around it.
“If people can’t apply it consistently across markets, teams and touchpoints, the equity never has a chance to build,” said Vucko.
“Implementation requires guidance, governance and clear principles. People need to understand not only how something moves, but why. Retail, social, packaging, advertising, digital experience and product ritual – particularly important for drinks brands – should all feel connected through a shared behavioural language.
“At the same time, consistency has to allow for flexibility. A global drinks brand may show up differently in São Paulo than it does in Athens, but the underlying behaviour of its motion should still feel recognisable.
“That’s what makes Coca-Cola such a useful example. The ritual itself is simple: open, pour, drink, enjoy. Any beverage can do the same. What Coca-Cola has done exceptionally well is invest in motion and sound over time until they became synonymous with the brand itself.
“The question is no longer whether brands move. They already do. The question now is whether they can successfully translate that movement into a digital expression that moves with intention, consistency and a clear sense of who they are.”