Brief Explanation

We quickly learned that such an open brief sounds appealing, but is extremely challenging in practice. Without defined boundaries, it’s difficult to focus the creative energy onto a final idea that meets the seemingly opposing desires for originality and feasibility, local and universal relevance. We all understand friendship, sharing and happiness in abstract…but distilling these grand themes into something tangible requires a very fresh eye, a ruthless self-editing process, and yes, a stroke of good luck.

The Brief

Often the simplest briefs produce the best work. In this case, the brief from the regional Coca-Cola client was short and to-the-point: “communicate Coca-Cola's spirit of friendship, sharing and happiness”. Everything else about the brief was left wide open, from the specific interpretation of such universal themes, to the selection of media channel that would bring the communication to life. But inherent in this brief were a series of seemingly opposing requirements: we needed to be locally relevant…yet iconic enough to be universally understood; completely fresh and innovative…yet simple enough for a still-developing market.

How the final design was conceived

The design consists of only two elements, the “dynamic ribbon” and the “contour bottle”, both of which are part of the registered iconography of Coca-Cola. Brought together they cleverly convey the brand spirit of sharing, friendship and happiness. There is very little difference between the first sketch of the idea and the final design, that’s how simple and iconic this particular piece is. If anything, the challenge in this case was not in enhancing or improving, but rather making sure all extraneous elements (such as a logo, or a tagline), were kept out of the final design.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

In the digital era the reach and repercussion of an “analog” piece can be magnified exponentially beyond the original media plan. The compelling story behind the creation of this piece quickly went viral within China and the world, generating widespread acclaim and exposing this iconic Coca-Cola image to millions of Chinese. Being featured in +75 publications in China and around the world, heavy activity on Weibo, and being awarded the Cannes Outdoor Lion Grand Prix (leading to additional reporting and visibility China) all resulted in an awareness ROI far exceeding the client’s original goals for an OOH piece.