Bringing Share a Coke to the US
The brief was simple: to bring Ogilvy’s recent Share a Coke campaign, which had already been a hit in Europe and Australia, home to America in a way that builds brand love with teens.
Project scope
Simply put, this is one of my favorite type of project to work on. It started with a new business pitch where we dug deep to present a balanced mix of “smart” and “creative.” The project spanned several months and called for a full range of skills including concept development, 3d design, UX, print, copy, and nailing the details of production. This is an example of a small team working very hard and having fun – which should be easy to spot in the work.
It’s hard to believe, but nearly 60% of teens in the US have never tried Coca-Cola. They may love the brand but haven’t had the drink.
Building on teens’ need for personalization and trends of mass customization, the idea is building togetherness – first, by discovering what we share in a name and by sharing a Coke.
Operationally, the ask was to create 2 million individually personalized cans for our target demographics.
At a higher level, we seek to bring people together through a shared moment.
Since happiness is always better shared, we created a “rule” to the experience where each visitor creates two cans: one for themselves and one for a friend.
(Not accidentally, this unselfish approach effectively cut the operational lift in half.)
Physical experience design
Speed and efficiency ruled the approach. Industrial “shipping container” style structures were used since they could arrive at a location and set up in 90 mins. I worked in SolidWorks for the 3d vending machine design to quickly get us to prototyping with fabrication partners. Behind the digital interface is a very fast label printer that creates the custom names – we went through several iterations to ensure the personalized can printing looks correct.
A size for all
A scaled and modular approach was used to accommodate diverse event locations: from large-scale pop-ups at sporting events, pods at amusement parks, and mobile units at parks and beaches.
The full experience
Includes results from the first two years.
(Additional team credit: AD: L. Taylor, CW: S. Chase, GCD: K Gosselin, Production: Momentum Digital agency: Wieden+Kennedy)
