2013 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

We introduced Coke Studio in the Middle East targeting the youth to strengthen their brand love through Music, through a TV program where, in each episode, a popular Arab artist collaborated with a popular International artist. And together they co-created beautiful songs to demonstrate the power of fusion and how positive change can happen when tradition meets modernity, when people open up to the world. To activate Coke Studio, our challenge was clear: How do we involve people in participating with the magic of fusion onground? We picked Yara, a leading Arab artist. In the spirit of the magic of Fusion, we created an activation that the youth had yet to experience - a new idea in entertainment in the region: THE REGION'S FIRST LIVE & INTERACTIVE HOLOGRAM CONCERTS. We set up a concert-like environment with stages, viewing areas, engagement areas. Finally, we created a completely believable computer-generated likeness of Yara that was projected onstage. And we gave users an opportunity to sing with the star resulting in a fusion duet that felt real and live. The hologram interaction created an effect that the youth were performing with her. All performances were watched live by thousands and all videos went live on YouTube. We invited people to vote for those performances. The best ones were selected at winners. We also took the essence of the Hologram online where created a unique, one-of-a-kind Facebook application giving users an opportunity to sing with Yara, resulting in the region’s first-ever social media playlist.

The Brief

Differentiate from the clutter of generic sponsorships (of talent shows) and superficial music advertising (using celebrities without any real insight/cultural relevance) deployed by Pepsi to appeal to the youth. And show Coca-Cola's brand values in action.

Results

+ Coke Studio was a breakthrough success with the 3rd highest ratings on Arab TV vs. other programs airing in the same time segment. + Coke Studio increased Brand Love Score with the UAE reaching 3.1 for the first time ever, while across the region, association with music grew by +6 points and brand favouritism grew by +2 points due to the positive association with music. + Tens of thousands of mall visitors watched the live hologram concerts; over a thousand people participated. + YouTube videos got over 1,196,000 views + 4,020 subscribers; Twitter got over 7,000 followers; Over 400 fan content videos. + Facebook page got a 35% social engagement score after just 10 weeks. Fans grew to 1.1 million. + Coke Studio's social content and experiences generated ‘Always On’ Brand conversations: 18,402 social media mentions with over 90% positive sentiments. 78% of those praised the idea of fusion.

Execution

We picked Yara, a leading Arab artist and in the spirit of Fusion, created a new idea in entertainment that the youth had yet to experience: THE REGION'S FIRST LIVE & INTERACTIVE HOLOGRAM CONCERTS. We set up a concert-like environment with the stage, the viewing area, the engagement area. We created a completely believable computer-generated likeness of Yara projected onstage. And gave people an opportunity to sing with the star resulting in a fusion duet that felt real and live. The hologram interaction created an effect that the youth were performing with her. All performances were watched live by thousands everyday and uploaded live on YouTube. We invited people to vote for those performances - the best were selected at winners.

The Situation

The Middle East has one of the highest youth populations. But, Pepsi dominated the youth’s share of heart and pocket. To be successful, brand love needed to be won. How could Coca-Cola improve its brand love with the youth? Love would come from tapping into their passions and making them happier. So, we needed to go beyond an oft-trodden and unsuccessful strategy of promotions.

The Strategy

Music is a passion point. If Coke had to give a stronger emotional pay-off than Pepsi, we had to own Music as a platform in a unique, remarkable manner. The youth were seeking to balance between tradition and modernity and finding the best of both worlds meant a lot to them. So, we needed to show how music could bring the best of both worlds (tradition + modernity, east + west, our region + the world). We introduced Coke Studio, calling the region’s youth to sing together with the world and open happiness through harmony, through an integrated ecosystem of content and experiences, across channels, which lead to massive WOM, buzz and social currency for the brand. To activate Coke Studio, our challenge was clear: How do we involve people in participating with the magic of fusion from the TV program?