2014 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

Coca-Cola wanted to pilot a retail experience solution to trigger sampling with 25% of a targeted teen base in the UAE, and generate talkability about the brand with teens.

Creative Execution

The Laughter Machine became a beacon of happiness - just like Coca-Cola. As a meaningful distribution of happiness - both as a product and as a brand experience - it stayed true to Coca-Cola's purpose of doing work that matters. And it became a social idea that brought teens together to share in happiness. Overall, it created a positive difference for teens by giving them an excuse to be happy in times of gloom and unhappiness in the region. Thus, becoming a cultural leadership direct engagement platform for Coca-Cola.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

On March 20 2013, The International Day of Happiness, Coca-Cola set out to prove that if the prevalent gloom in the Middle East was contagious, then happiness and laughter were even more contagious. So, we built The Laughter Machine – a vending machine, where we replaced money with sounds of laughter and happiness – and placed it in two key universities in the UAE – American University Sharjah and American University Dubai.

Results

• In just 9 hours, 40% of students at American University Sharjah and 58% of students at American University Dubai sampled Coca-Cola. • In just 2 days, the online video became the 2nd highest trending video. • Over 1.2 million views across social media. • Positive WOM: o “Crazy way to make people laugh, smile, in a sad world” (Muhanad) o “Very nice. It must be sent everywhere. Lovely” (Rabia) o Thank you Coke. You brought happiness to students amidst tense pressure.” (Ipi) o “Advertising done right.” (Ahmad) o “This is the reason why I joined advertising. To do such things, Brilliant.” (Mariam) • Contagious and will be implemented in universities across the UAE and the region in 2014.