CONTEXT

Coke has been an iconic, culturally relevant brand for generations. It is the second most understood word in the world, after “Ok.” But Gen Z is different from any generation that’s come before. Coke is a part of the background. So how do you move a brand back into the heart of culture? You don’t just create a new flavour, you create a cultural innovation.

CHALLENGE

Gen Z does not see Coca Cola as a preferred drink of choice. They have more options than ever before when it comes to quenching their thirst. Coke needed a new way to introduce the classic, incredible taste of Coca-Cola in a way that felt culturally authentic. 

Enter Coca Cola Creations - a platform dedicated to hitting the cultural passion points of Gen Z through limited edition product innovations. 

In culture we’ve seen drop culture reign supreme, and it was only a matter of time before non fashion brands entered the fold.

COCA COLA STARLIGHT

Together with the innovations, product development and creative teams at Coke we have developed our first drop. Coca-Cola Starlight, a crystallisation of Gen Z’s spirit of exploring the unknown, fantasy and escapism. It’s space flavoured. Not cherry. Not marshmallow. Not raspberry. Space.

CREATIVE AND LAUNCH

For our first launch, using progressive technologies like augmented reality, we created an entire universe around Coca-Cola Starlight. We transformed and transfixed a generation, working with licensing partners, designers, artists and creative collaborators. We included the world’s first AR concert experience, featuring Pop Diva Ava Max, on every can and bottle, turning ever Coke into a concert ticket. We involved ASMR experiences that transport you to space, filters and billboard experiences that reinvent the way in which Gen Z interacts with brands.

In addition to digitally first campaign, we ran traditional ATL across TV, OOH, print and POS.

STARLIGHT IN MARKETS

We built the first Creation its own infinite universe: Starlight. Our global toolkit that was activated across markets from Europe, to Asia to the NA and LATAM.

LOCALISATION

Across its 7 complex operating units (NAOU, EU, LATAM, APAC, Africa, China, Australia), the Coke Creations campaigns were led from the centralised marketing function of Coke. Within the Operating Units (OU’s) are robust country/area specific markets – for example, Coca-Cola has a specialised original Coke recipe for each country / OU, and we had to collate accurate product size and label files for each asset to support this global campaign effectively.

Our extensive toolkits for Byte and Starlight included over 1500 assets from formats, adaptations and across the full customer journey. A comprehensive and inspirational guideline document, of over 200 pages, allowed OU’s to implement locally and accurately, and acted as brand guardian to the launch.

Each Coke Creations asset included a level of versioning / localisation, for example the name: “Creations”, “Créations” and “Creaditions” – spelling is market dependent.