COCA-COLA spent millions of pounds launching its Coke Zero drink this summer, but arch-rival Pepsi Max still claims victory in the diet cola wars.Pepsi played a waiting game in its advertising strategy in the battle of the "bloke Cokes" - low-fat colas marketed so macho men would not be embarrassed to buy them. Instead of going head-tohead against the Pounds 4.5 million British ad blitz from Coke, Pepsi, run in the UK by Britvic, held back until the fuss had died down before launching its counterattack - a highprofile campaign with the line Max Taste, Zero Hype.

More recently, it has hired Eva Longoria of Desperate Housewives fame to front up another campaign.Britvic chief executive Paul Moody said the strategy paid off handsomely: "Our share of the market in the last eight weeks is now 5% higher than it was before Coke Zero."He said the main impact of Coke Zero's launch had been to increase consumers' awareness of colas generally and add to rivals' sales.

The jury is still out on whether Coke's huge global spend on Coke Zero will pay off in the long term, or will prove an expensive mistake.Coca-Cola claims the product has been a success, but analysts question whether that is enough to offset the inevitable loss of sales from its other variations.

"The main concern with Coke Zero is it causes confusion among consumers," said William Grobel at Intangible Business. "It's hard to see any difference between it and other products such as Diet Coke, or other sugar-free Coke products launched in the past."Britvic profits were flat at £39.6 million in the year to 1 October.