The Campaign

For Chinese teens and Olympians alike, ‘gold’ is more than a medal. Gold is the moment we connect with the people who support us. To redefine Olympic gold in China, every bottle of Coca- Cola became a ‘gold medal’ to reward our personal supporters, and provide everyone a chance to share a gold moment.

Creative Execution

Three phases from June to August, with advertising, and media/ social partnerships all driving engagement to a packaging interaction. PHASE I: REDEFINE GOLD In June, Coca- Cola released two brand films on TV and online video, celebrating the connection moments of Olympians and ordinary teens. On social network QZone, China’s largest with over 640 million active users, Coca- Cola collected ‘gold moments’ from the timelines of users, creating personalized albums to share. PHASE II: GOLD IS OURS In mid- June, Coca- Cola released special packaging featuring ‘gold medal’ messages to the supporters of teens: ‘Gold Medal Dad,’ Gold Medal Friend,’ etc. PHASE III: OLYMPIC GOLD In partnership with CCTV, China’s official broadcaster of the Olympics, Coca- Cola ‘gold moments’ became part of the daily gold medal coverage, reaching nearly one third of the population, plus a real- time content marketing campaign on mobile media Tencent News.

On the day of launch, the campaign video became the #2 hot topic on China’s microblogging platform, Sina Weibo (source: Sina). 117 million users participated in the Qzone gold moments engagement, the largest social campaign ever on Tencent platforms (source: Tencent). Real time content marketing earned a staggering 9.7 billion page views, aided by media placement on Tencent’s mobile news home page (source: Tencent). The campaign was rated the best performing digital campaign in China by R3 for Q3 2016, and outperformed Nike in the Olympic recap [source: R3 EnSpire Index]. Finally, the campaign achieved 3.1% volume growth for Coca- Cola, over triple the target growth and 31 million more cases than Pepsi (source: Coca- Cola).

That's Gold campaign redefined Olympic gold as a moment to recognize and reward our supporters, and created opportunities for all Chinese teens to share gold moments by sharing Coca- Cola. Driving to packaging as the key engagement touch point, the campaign spread Coca- Cola’s new definition of gold with major media placements and partnerships, and made the story personal and relevant with social engagements and real time Olympic coverage, all touch points and phases across the 3- month campaign period integrated by one strong message.

The target was teenagers, ages 16- 19, in high school and university. With a lot of homework even in summer, teens consume drinks like Coca- Cola as a break and bonding moment. In China, awareness of Coca- Cola among teens was high, however consumption frequency was low, and it was important to earn a meaningful role in their summer moments. Focus group research with Chinese teens, as well as interviews with Coca- Cola’s sponsored Chinese Olympians, revealed a shared value stronger than the desire for achievement: connection with the people who matter. Chinese teens and Olympians alike highly value their relationships with their personal support teams, the people who are there for them no matter what. The integration strategy was split into 3 tasks. First, introduce Coca- Cola’s new definition of gold. Second, create gold moments for Chinese teens. Third, connect Chinese teens to the gold moments of Olympians.