Type Soft drink Country of origin Slovenia | Manufacturer Atlantic Grupa | |
 | ||
Introduced March 8, 1953; 63 years ago (1953-03-08) Flavor Rose hip, lemon and orange Variants Cockta Chinotto
Cockta Rossa
Cockta Black tonic
Cockta Plus Mandarine
Cockta Plus Lime and Ginger
Cockta Easy | ||
Cockta is a soft drink from Slovenia. Its main ingredient comes from the dog rose hip; the other ingredients come from 11 different herbs, lemon and orange. Its original variant contains neither caffeine nor orthophosphoric acid.
Contents
Origins
The origins of the Cockta drink begin in the early 1950s. In 1952, Ivan Deu, the Director of the state-owned corporation Slovenijavino, came up with the idea of producing an original, refreshing Slovenian beverage which would be able to compete against soft drinks from abroad (that is, the United States; i.e. their Coca-Cola and Pepsi companies and their subsidiary beverage companies), which were not sold in Yugoslavia. The chemical engineer, Emerik Zelinka, an employee of the Slovenijavino research labs, created the drink with a new, different taste, derived from a blend of eleven different herbs and spices; including the rose hip, a prominent flavour within Cockta's blend. The drink was introduced to the market for the first time on 8 March 1953 at a Ski jumping competition in Planica.
Ownership
In 2000, the Cockta brand was bought by the Kolinska food company, known today as Droga Kolinska. In mid 2010, Croatian company Atlantic Grupa acquired Droga Kolinska.
Sales
In the first year of production, four million Cockta bottles were sold in Slovenia alone, and ten years later, sales climbed to 71 million. From Slovenia, Cockta spread to other markets of Yugoslavia, where it established both licensed and proprietary bottling facilities.
Marketing
The initial Cockta launch and marketing campaign was carefully designed. The first bottle and label for Yugo Cockta was created by Sergej Pavlin, then a young architecture student. Pavlin also designed other marketing collateral, including the design for Cockta delivery trucks and cardboard packaging for Cockta's bottles.
Many older Slovenes still remember the posters which swept the entire country as part of the original Cockta marketing campaign: they featured a suntanned young woman, with a hairstyle considered trendy at the time, in a pony tail, with blue eyes, holding in her hands a bottle of the mysterious new beverage. The sports event at Planica where Cockta was launched was the earliest form of sports sponsorship in Slovenia.
In 2006, Cockta sponsored the MaxCards World Championships, held in Ljubljana.
In 2013 a survey conducted by Valicon placed Cockta 6th in a list of the top 25 strongest brands in Slovenia. Brand strength was calculated based on brand awareness, experience and usage.