Results and Effectiveness

Results were amazing. A huge 23% uplift in purchase intent translates into 4.2million more cans and US$2million incremental annualised sales just in Singapore (Source:TNS Research). 'The Coke Hug Machine' achieved a crazy level of fame in a very short period. Highlights of global media generated in just over 3 weeks: - 116million+ impressions, including 1.5million+ video views of the stunt - An amazing reach of 82% of the target market. - Featured on Network TV:ABC Good Morning America /CBS/CNN/NBC etc - Online news:The Huffington Post/Forbes/ TIME/mashable/ MSN/Yahoo News/Sina/ Herald Sun/China Daily etc - Huge Social media coverage:Twitter/facebook/YouTube/YouKu/SinaWeibo + All for just a US$20,000 investment.

Creative Execution

'The Coke Hug Machine' was unveiled on March 29-30, 2012, at the National University of Singapore. 'Reactions were amazing…people really had fun with it...there was a long line of people looking to give hugs - it was really heartwarming,' said Leonardo O'Grady, ASEAN IMC Director for Coca-Cola. During the excitement of the stunt, hundreds of enthusiastic students captured it on mobile phone cameras and uploaded content to their social networks. Suddenly the campaign was generating its own momentum. The agency captured further content to extend the live social media coverage by NUS students with media outreach in Singapore and internationally. Outreach covered network TV, newspapers, blogs and Twitter focusing on Coke's largest markets like China, India, the Middle East, United States, Australia, and Brazil. A tracking study to assess success was established through TNS research to monitor the impact among the target.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Happiness is contagious. 'The Coke Hug Machine' was conceived as an 'Open Happiness' stunt innovation. We took a regular Coca-Cola vending machine and modified it to release a can of Coke whenever pressure sensors on the sides were pressed. As a low-budget experiment, we aimed for ANY POSSIBLE PURCHASE INTENT INCREASE for incremental sales among Coca-Cola users in Singapore. Success here would create the business case for an Asian rollout. Our communications objective was emotional engagement through reminding consumers that sharing a Coke equals sharing a moment of happiness. We set a modest target of 10million media impressions with our US$20,000 budget. We wanted the real experience at the vending machine to 'love you back' when you hug it, AND the virtual experience in the form of contagious content to be become a 'currency of teen friendship' that would make an impact well beyond the single machine installed in Singapore.