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As expected, Coca Cola and AOL announced the outline of a major alliance today, although its execution details were not yet as clear as its rivals. It is known that the Coke AOL deal will focus on event marketing and key holiday times. Expect cross-promotions built around the AOL Moviefone brand, Coke's official sponsorship of the Olympic Games and a major in-store effort around the Christmas holiday season.

The Yahoo!-Pepsi deal announced Mar. 23 integrated Yahoo! into the PepsiStuff.com promotion by allowing consumers to redeem under-cap points for prizes. The deal will produce 1.5 billion co-branded bottles across five Pepsi brands.

A statement from both companies said, "Coca-Cola will make America Online's interactive services and products available to consumers around the world through The Coca-Cola Company's extensive distribution channels worldwide, including advertising, merchandising, packaging and in-store promotions." AOL for its part will spin an advertising commitment from Coke of more than $20 million over three years into AOL, CompuServe, AOL.COM, Netscape, Spinner, Winamp and ICQ.

It remains to be seen whether or not Coke's e-commerce operation will be included. Coke quietly announced in early April that it will launch a "coca-colastore.com," to expand distribution for Coca-Cola-brand merchandise. Accessible through the Coca-Cola homepage at www.coca-cola.com, the new "store" is expected to be operational by early summer.

According to the company, viewing Coca-Cola-brand merchandise will be similar to window shopping in a mall, with products displayed in environments relevant to consumer interests. The site will feature Coca-Cola brand products from apparel to cookware to collectibles -- all available in a one-of-a-kind store on the internet.

"Coca-Cola enthusiasts around the world are increasingly demanding Coca-Cola brand apparel, collectibles and other merchandise. With an extensive selection and around-the-clock convenience, coca-colastore.com is an ideal answer to their needs. In addition, the store significantly extends The Coca-Cola Company's merchandising strategy into this exciting distribution channel and expands the Coca-Cola experience," says Andrew Lelchuk, manager of Business Development and E-commerce at Coca-Cola.

The site will be developed with Innotrac, an e-commerce solutions provider which has so far worked with Kodak, Hardee's and other major brands. According to Innotrac, it will serve as Coca-Cola's exclusive e-commerce partner for managing online retailing of merchandise, collectibles, and apparel in North America. Under the arrangement, Innotrac will design and develop the official online store and manage all aspects of order processing, fulfillment and customer care.