Coke creates happiness the Chinese way

The campaign provides a digital platform for the Chinese to nominate people who have brought them happiness. The platform, called 'Coca Cola Circle', which is built and managed by wwwins isobar, contains a template for internet memes that users can customise, and has clocked 650,000 uploads to date.

Leo Burnett created a TV commercial, as well as several key visuals that are adaptable to multiple media, to trigger interest in the platform. The brief was to expand the brand's target audience from teenagers to families.

“This new work has feelings of positivity and authenticity that will set a new benchmark to break through the boring, wallpaper-like ads that we see so many of around Chinese New Year, " said Stefan Petzinger, general manager of multinationals at the agency.

The objective of the campaign is for Coke to enter the 2013 business year with a strong sales position, but Petzinger emphasised the campaign is less about maintaining a repository of sales leads, and more about a branding effort to create preference (against competitor Pepsi) and to keep the dialogue going with consumers.

“Coke’s ambition is to make China a happier place," said Julian Hernandez, ECD for Coke China at Leo Burnett. "This is what inspired us."

The brand also incorporated a QR code on its product packaging that will act as a link to the 'Coca-Cola Circle’ mobile application. New packs began appearing on shelves Monday. Coca-Cola claims that it is the first time in mainland China that code technology has been made a part of packaging.

Meanwhile, the entire campaign will run for four weeks nationally. Coke made special media buys on the home pages of Sina, Tencent and Renren to highlight people who were nominated as "happiness creators".

 

Credits

Project: Happiness Created in China
Client: Coca-Cola
Creative Agency: Leo Burnett Shanghai
Creative Team: Julian Hernandez, Alexis Mardapittas, Yvonne Ye, Joy Zou,
Account Management: Stefan Petzinger, Frances Kong, Grace Fong
Film Producer: Christine Chen
Film Production Company: Loft Films
Film Director: Pepe Puenzo
Print Producer: Kelly Yang
Photographer: Nacho Ricci
Print Production Company: Central Studios
Digital Agency: wwwins Isobar
Exposure: Television, Outdoor, Print, Online