Coca-Cola recently celebrated the opening of new state-of-the-art Consumer Interaction Centers (CICs) in Latin America. Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent said the facilities and others like them around the world represent the "future of consumer engagement and marketing."

"The CIC is not about keeping up, but keeping ahead of what consumers are saying," Kent said on March 3 while inaugurating a facility in Bogota, Colombia.

A little over a week later, Ahmet C. Bozer, president of Coca-Cola International, cut the ribbon at a CIC in San Jose, Costa Rica.

In addition to Colombia and Costa Rica, Coca-Cola Consumer Interaction Centers currently serve consumers in six additional countries in Coke's Latin Center Business Unit: Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. By the end of 2014, that number will extend to 15 through expansion in Venezuela and the Caribbean region. Combined, the Latin Center CICs will engage more than 56 million people in three languages.

These centers will enable Coca-Cola to generate real-time marketing content, 365 days a year, and communicate with a growing number of fans who want to connect with the company and its brands through social media.

"At Coca-Cola, we're committed to open and honest dialogue with the people who make our brands part of their lives 1.9 billion times a day," Kent added. "People are looking for two-way communications -- conversations -- with companies and brands, and social media makes these interactions possible in new and powerful ways."

Kent inaugurated the center during a visit to Colombia, Ecuador and Peru , where he announced $3.5 billion in new investments across those countries, in addition to opening a new Coca-Cola bottling plant and meeting with bottling partners and political and business leaders.

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