Coca-Cola representatives spent the weekend handing out free bottles of Dasani water in Calgary to raise awareness of the company’s new ‘plantbottle’ technology.

The PR push is being complemented with OOH transit advertising and in-store placements across Western Canada, and the free giveaways will continue this weekend in Vancouver.

The goal is to increase consumer awareness about the brand’s CSR efforts, Dave Moran, director of public affairs and communications at Coca-Cola Canada, tells MiC.

‘Where consumers are aware of the environmental benefits of a product, it dramatically increases pick-up,’ he says.

Each plastic plantbottle contains up to 30% plant-based material made from molasses, which is a by-product of sugar production. The technology decreases the carbon footprint of a bottle by up to 20%, according to Moran.

Coca-Cola is working with Cossette Media to place wraps around Vancouver buses and Calgary LRT vehicles. The in-store strategy, made up of cardboard displays and cooler stickers, is being executed in convenience stores, where most bottles of Dasani are sold.

‘We’re looking to reach the broad public, everyone who cares about the environment, but it’s very much a convenience store market, so late-teens to late-20s,’ says Moran.

This plantbottle push, which will continue to the end of the year, follows the company’s initial Canadian rollout in Vancouver during the 2010 Olympics in February, when Dasani, as well as most of the company’s soft drinks, were available in the new bottles.

Coke is planning for more beverages to be sold in the plantbottle and for the new bottle to continue to improve over the coming years.

‘This is a first step in creating the bottle of the future, where it’s all plant-based materials,’ says Moran.

BStreet handled the creative and Inventa coordinated last weekend’s on-the-ground hand-out.