Results and Effectiveness

Happiness Karaoke proved that Coke was K-able. More than 34,000 of the usually shy Taiwanese performed in front of the crowd during 4 weekends and when the activity neared its official end, they encored for it to be extended. Which of course we did. On the other hand, 100% participants uploaded the K-ing to their own facebook page, sharing the personalized music video and happiness to all their friends. Search for “Coke” and “Open Happiness” increased 20-30%. The campaign performed well on brand tracking factors: ad awareness raised 11% in July and TOM jumped with a 35% growth.

Creative Execution

We took the private to the public and created a FIRST in Taiwan and Greater China by building a two-storrey highKaraoke machine in the Harajuku of Taipei, Ximending. A-mei, the diva of Mandarin pop music and pride of Taiwan, agreed to develop the theme song for Coca-Cola. Our karaoke machine not only allowed consumers to sing, it let them sing with A-mei and get a chance to be in the commercial with her! To top up the happiness even further, the karaoke machine dispensed bottles of Coke in response to the singing. The louder the singing, the more bottles of Coke it dispensed. A “Coke Karaoke Happiness” Facebook App allowed singers to participate further by embedding their voice and photo into the Coke TVC alongside A-mei. The customized commercial was then transferred to the karaoke machine to be broadcast in public. Instant celebrity, but from a safe distance!

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

“Open Happiness” has been Coke’s global communication compass for years. Localizing this concept and making it relevant for Taiwanese youth, who are innately reserved, is an ongoing struggle. Could we create a community experience that would entice shy teens to open up, share their happiness and help spread the word? Music is a natural but much-tapped marketing link for youth. We couldn’t afford to ignore its potential; we just needed to take a new angle. Shy in public, but extraordinarily extrovert in the privacy of a Karaoke booth, Taiwanese youth have taken ownership of Karaoke to the point of shortening it amongst themselves to just the letter “K”, with “K-able” becoming shorthand for whether a song (or even a person) can be considered sing-able or cool. So we wanted to find out, can Coca-Cola, a brand that their grandparents grew up drinking, still be “K-able”?