Managing marketing initiatives across a global network is no small feat. For Coca-Cola, aligning strategy with execution across regions, brands and operating units required more than incremental improvements — it demanded a new way of planning and governing work at scale.
As the organisation evolved its global marketing operations, fragmented processes and legacy tools created inefficiencies that slowed planning cycles and limited visibility. Coca-Cola needed a unified system that could bring structure, clarity and speed to marketing planning — without sacrificing flexibility at the regional level.
By expanding its Adobe Workfront investment with Workfront Planning, Coca-Cola established a centralised marketing system of record that connects strategy to execution, enabling teams worldwide to plan smarter, move faster and deliver measurable impact.
The challenge of marketing at a global scale.
Coca-Cola’s marketing ecosystem spans multiple regions, brands and operating units — each with distinct market dynamics, timelines and priorities. Historically, teams relied on manual workflows and Excel-based tools to manage initiatives. While functional at a local level, these approaches created inconsistency, limited governance and made it difficult to maintain enterprise-wide visibility.
Each region developed its own processes for intake, prioritisation and execution. The result was a fragmented planning landscape that slowed decision-making, obscured marketing spend and made it challenging to align initiatives with broader business objectives.
Recognising these challenges, Coca-Cola set out to create a marketing system of record — a single source of truth that would standardise intake and planning while still allowing teams the flexibility needed to operate effectively in local markets.
Unifying strategy and execution with Workfront Planning.
To support this vision, Coca-Cola implemented Workfront Planning with its existing Adobe Workfront platform. This unified solution centralises intake, prioritisation and governance across global and regional teams, establishing a consistent framework for managing marketing initiatives from ideation through activation.
With governed workflows in place, every initiative now follows a clear and compliant path — reducing ambiguity and ensuring accountability. Teams can prioritise work based on strategic value, allocate resources more effectively and track progress in real time, regardless of geography.
By replacing fragmented processes with a single planning framework, Coca-Cola strengthened alignment between global strategy and local execution — ensuring that marketing efforts remain connected, transparent and outcome-driven.
Turning visibility into actionable insight.
At enterprise scale, visibility is only valuable if it drives better decisions. Workfront Planning provides Coca-Cola leaders with real-time pipeline views into timelines, budgets and resource allocation across hundreds of initiatives.
Configurable planning views allow stakeholders to monitor progress, identify bottlenecks and respond quickly to shifting priorities. Strategic planning is clearly separated from day-to-day execution, enabling teams to focus on long-term objectives without losing sight of immediate deliverables.
Structured planning applications also support what-if analysis by market, brand and organisational unit — helping leaders model scenarios, optimise spend and direct resources where they will have the greatest impact. This balance of foresight and flexibility allows Coca-Cola to adapt quickly in a dynamic global market.
Measurable impact and operational clarity.
The results of Coca-Cola’s transformation are both tangible and far-reaching. By centralising planning and introducing governed intake workflows, the organisation achieved a 33% reduction in planning cycle time, saving approximately 200 hours per quarter.
Beyond efficiency gains, Workfront Planning has become a catalyst for clarity and speed across the marketing network.
