That’s Remarkable! Coke’s New Gen Y Targeted Campaign
Welcome to a new series of short reads celebrating remarkable creative work from around the world. These campaigns are great examples of how marketers are connecting with consumers in smart ways and have got us saying “that’s remarkable”.
First-up is some observations from a recent campaign by Coca-Cola in Europe targeting Gen Y called “Open That Coca-Cola Taste”.
Watch the campaign’s full-length ad below.
Last year wasn’t kind to anyone, and a major global FMCG brand like Coca-Cola was no exception. As bars, restaurants and cafes closed around the world, Coke made the potentially risky decision to temporarily stop its advertising across the globe.
However, things look like they’re on the up for Coke after it recently launched its latest campaign in collaboration with the highly popular artist Tyler, The Creator. The ad came from Coca-Cola in the UK and is the work of creative agency Wieden + Kennedy London. The campaign is running across TV, online video, radio and interactive out-of-home, with audiences also invited to recreate the dance on their own social channels.
I believe this is a fantastic example of modern FMCG marketing. Here’s why.
The Taste “Hit” of Coke
The campaign is beautifully single-minded. It focuses on the refreshing first “hit” of flavour that Coke is famous for and beautifully dramatises how the taste is beyond-words sensational.
It’s Absurd and Attention-Grabbing
As an ad it grabs your attention. It’s out there, it’s a little bit weird and it plays on the edges, which is where remarkability lies. It gets extra points for aligning the peak attention moment (in this case the taste hit) with the consumption moment. Even more points for conveying the idea with the sound both on and off!
Social by Design
If we’ve learnt anything from the meteoric rise to fame of TikTok, it’s that dance is a universal language. It’s no accident that the Coke creative has leant into this exploding social behaviour and capitalised on it by creating a bespoke choreographed ‘Coca-Cola Kick Shuffle’ dance. The dance exploded across social channels with guerilla seeding through talent, leading into a huge dance-based social campaign including challenges and step-by-step tutorials.
Something for Everyone
The full version of the ad sits at over 2 minutes long and is representative of a wide range of demographics, cultures and interests. However, it also easily cuts into 6” and 15” iterations to be used in more contextual and personalised environments such as gaming, sport, music, dance and beauty.
The Impact of Collaborations
Coke collaborated with musician and rapper Tyler, the Creator to create an original song for the campaign that would appeal particularly to Gen Y and Gen Z. This collaboration will help Coke reach an additional market in loyal Tyler, the Creator fans while also giving the media something to write about, resulting in additional earned coverage.
Unleashing the Power of Creativity & Connections
The work is more eloquently described by Walter Susini, Coca-Cola’s SVP of Marketing in Europe, who said “What is brilliant about this campaign is how we have merged the power of creativity and connections to be able to increase our efficiency and effectiveness in our overall plan. We have developed a modular communication platform that enables us to have one unique message and tone of voice across the different moments and occasions of the year in all touch points to push the brand experience.”
It’s easy to imagine how this could be activated in a truly integrated communications approach with everything very simply pointing back to “taste” and the “hit” of Coke. You can see how a brand team and their village of agencies could get around this idea and really make it sing.
