2014 Winners & Shortlists

THE LAUGHTER MACHINE

Short List
BrandCOCA-COLA
Product/ServiceCOCA-COLA
EntrantFP7/DXB Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
CategoryAmbient Media: Large Scale
Entrant Company FP7/DXB Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Advertising Agency FP7/DXB Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Media Agency UM Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Results and Effectiveness

• 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 1.4 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.

Creative Execution

We placed The Laughter Machine in two key universities in the UAE – American University Sharjah and American University Dubai, to engage teens in a relevant and contextual real-world environment, in an unexpected, surprising and delightful manner. Their interactions were documented and the film was seeded across social media channels.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

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. 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.

Credits

Name Company Role
Paul Banham FP7/DXB Executive Creative Director
Aunindo Anoop Sen FP7/DXB Associate Creative Director
Gautam Wadher FP7/DXB Associate Creative Director
Tahaab Rais FP7/DXB Head Of Insights And Strategy
Tarek Ali Ahmed FP7/DXB General Manager
Martin Yofre Momentum Dubai Business Director
Mazen Sraj UM Digital Account Manager
Jad Daou UM Media Planner
Tolga Cebe Coca/Cola Regional Marketing Manager
Islam El Dessouky Coca/Cola Group Brand Manager
Effie Kontopoulou Coca/Cola Marketing Manager Coca/Cola Trademark
Amina Ijaz Coca/Cola Brand Manager
Uday Desai Momentum Dubai Senior Tech Lead
Sooraj Tr Momentum Dubai Ios Lead Developer
Pankaj Nainwal Momentum Dubai Software Engineer
Dolly Saidy MINT MENA Managing Director
Mario Atallah MINT MENA Director
Karol Akl MINT MENA Agency Producer
UM Additional company
Momentum Mena Additional company
MINT MENA Additional company