FACES OF THE CITY

TitleFACES OF THE CITY
BrandCOCA-COLA
Product / ServiceCOKE
CategoryE02. Drinks
EntrantMcCANN SHANGHAI, CHINA
Idea Creation McCANN SHANGHAI, CHINA

Credits

Name Company Position
Richard Cotton The Coca-Cola Company Coca-cola Greater China & Korea Head of Content, Creative & Design
Steve Llewelyn The Coca-Cola Company Coca-Cola Greater China & Korea Design Lead
Cia Hatzi McCann-Erickson Guangming Ltd Shanghai Coca-Cola Asia Pacific Chief Client Officer
Norashikin Manjit McCann-Erickson Guangming Ltd Shanghai Coca-Cola Regional Executive Creative Director
Michael Li McCann-Erickson Guangming Ltd Shanghai Executive Creative Director
Jay Caplan McCann-Erickson Guangming Ltd Shanghai Planning Director
Brian Mok McCann-Erickson Guangming Ltd Shanghai Senior Art Director
Yitian Yang McCann-Erickson Guangming Ltd Shanghai Copywriter
Helene Huber McCann-Erickson Guangming Ltd Shanghai Senior Planning Manager
Felicia How McCann-Erickson Guangming Ltd Shanghai Group Account Director
Sophia Guo McCann-Erickson Guangming Ltd Shanghai Senior Account Manager
Noma Bar Dutch Uncle Inc Illustrator

The Campaign

The big idea was Faces of the City, a series of 23 cans celebrating the distinct personalities of the people who make China’s cities special. China has over 240 cities, each with their own distinct cultures and even dialects. Different cities have old rivalries, but for today’s youth moving around China, each one leaves such a distinct impression because of the friends they make there. No matter which city we come from, we can all come together over a Coca-Cola and share openly about our cultures. Beyond stylish cans, Faces of the City was a celebration of the rich diversity of China’s urban culture, and a brand statement about coming together across differences.

Creative Execution

We started by identifying meaningful cultural details of each city to integrate into character designs. Some details were made obvious, while others were discoverable only upon a second glance cities. For example, Charismatic Beijing is a man of bold stature with a strong jawline creatively formed by the Great Wall. Easy-going Chengdu rests her cheek on her hand with a panda on her head that doubles up as her hair! And Spicy Changsha fires up the party like a lit match or a hot chili. We engaged renowned illustrator Noma Bar for designs in the simple, bold, and iconic Coca-Cola style. From the packaging, Faces of the City led consumers to a digital experience in partnership with Baidu. Scan the graphic, and bring the design to life in an augmented reality animation. The cans were distributed nation- wide.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

1. Volume Increased 226% • 2018: from Jan 1st to the 3rd week of May, the volume of sleek cans has reached to 7.5million UC • 2017: same period of the time, volume of sleek can was 2.3 million UC • Which is an incredible growth with 226% increase. 2. SOCIAL IMPRESSION: From March 19th (sleek can launch date) to the end of April, social impressions through the Baidu app reached 548 million. 3. BRAND LOVE: By April, brand love scores reached 2.51 compared to 2.35 last year, a 6.8% increase.