Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

G’day, mates! Coca-Cola is known for ‘big brand’ campaigns. But Down Under, for Share a Coke 2020, we took things into our own hands – well, our customers’, anyway. To relaunch Share a Coke (again) we tapped into a unique cultural insight and created Coke Shout Outs, an activation that used our love of the Australian language to reconnect Aussies on National TV. When sharing a Coke could literally mean life or death, we reinvented the decade old campaign turning it into a 360° immersive experience that helped customers take a traditionally intimate connection and make it a nationwide one.

Background

Share a Coke is Coca-Cola’s biggest campaign. EVER. But after a decade, Australians had campaign fatigue from ‘names on cans’. A big problem for the campaign that makes or breaks the year. Objectives: 1. Reignite people’s love for Share a Coke. 2. In a declining category, hold sales flat YOY. In a year when sharing a Coke face-to-face could literally mean life or death, we needed to give Share a Coke the refresh it deserved after a decade. And COVID-19 didn't make it any easier. Our Challenge: How do you share a Coke when you can’t share a Coke?

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Brand Insight: Armed with 2019 campaign data, we found that the “one off” names we’d printed on Cokes that were uniquely Aussie - like Bogan (uncouth person) and Old Mate (a snarky but loving nickname) - were the most popular. Whether you’re prince or pauper, in Australia you’re just Old Mate. Consumer Insight: During the pandemic, the idea of Australian ‘mateship’ was strained: fighting over toilet paper and isolated from each other, Aussies weren’t up for belonging and couldn’t get together. Aussies were gathering around the living room screen in search of connection from inside, and outside their own homes. Creative Idea: Coke Shout-Outs Submit your shout-out and become the star of Coca-Cola’s iconic summer campaign. To relaunch a campaign that’s predicated on sharing, we reinvented it by inviting Aussies to shout out their mates on national TV using Coke as the vehicle.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

We made our cans "Aussie as" by replacing typical names with Aussie colloquialisms. Charlotte became Chaz, Ryan became Ryano, and Old Mate stayed Old Mate. But it didn't end there. We also made every experience with the brand "Aussie as" too. Our strategy: Make sharing a Coke "Aussie As" connecting old mates like never before. To reignite Australia's love of Share a Coke: We did away with a stereotypical Coke campaign and instead invited real Aussies to Share a Coke by recording a message to anyone, anywhere in Australia with a can in hand. To Share a Coke in fun new ways: We made these recorded messages the stars of Coca-Cola’s biggest ever UGC campaign. Turning what was formerly an intimate moment of sharing into a public one. Backed by one of the most prestigious advertisers in the world. Anthemic summer ads were out, and Old Mate was in.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

We launched with three scripted UGC TVCs and media partnerships with a CTA inviting Aussies to re-connect with their mates in lockdown by staring in our biggest campaign of the year. Just shout-out your mates, submit, and we'll do the rest. As quick as the submissions came in, we put them on TV! Geotargeting the placement so that each TVC was mapped to TV market signals to ensure that it was seen In the right location, by the right people. Extending the experience by notifying EVERY successful shout-out via text message with the time and the channel their shout-out would be aired. Allowing them to share their shout-out with the world. I mean, what else do you have to do when in lockdown? What started as three UGC shout-outs snowballed into over 50 unique TVCs that were broadcast on six different networks across Australia over the two-month campaign.

List the results (30% of vote)

Australia was Shouting-Out for a Coke! We'd reignited Australia’s love for Share a Coke: • Over 650 unique Shout-Outs from boofheads, bogans and old mates • Our UGC TVCs reached a total of 7.25M unique Australians • Campaign metric “enjoyed a lot” was twice the AU norm at 24% And we'd blown our sales targets out of the water: • Sales volume increased by a whopping 16.4% YOY, the highest YOY summer sales growth in a decade For a campaign that’s been in market for over a decade, we’re shouting out about these results.