Those Coke cans with names on them increased sales for the first time in a decade

It turns out all it takes to reverse a decade-long sales decline is to slap names onto soda bottles. Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign, which saw names like Chris, Alex, and Jess, as well as monikers like “BFF” and “Wingman” emblazoned on bottles and cans, is credited for increasing the company’s US soft drink sales by 0.4 percent year-over-year, according to data reported in The Wall Street Journal. The increase came after 11 straight years of dropping sales.

The containers seemed perfectly designed for social media — nothing makes drinking a Coke special like seeing one with your name on it, and plenty took the opportunity to share photos of cans on Instagram. Some 250 names were used in the campaign, and machines that could print any name you like traveled the country over the summer. Now that summer’s left us, however, so too has “Share a Coke” — though we wouldn’t be surprised if the personalized cans make a reappearance next year.