In the Middle East, Coca-Cola is still competing for the position of market leader. In 2014, we set out to increase brand love amongst one of the UAE’s largest consumer segments – South Asians. In a segment usually targeted with basic freebies and generic prizes, we needed an insight that our target could truly relate to.
We found that majority of the segment was made up of blue collar workers who leave their families back home and come to the country to work for a better future – often on extremely low wages. So we created the Hello Happiness Phone Booths – booths powered by Coca-Cola bottle caps to help connect these workers to their families more often.
The booths were installed in labour camps across the country and logged over 140,000 minutes, while an online video took the activation further with more than 14,000 tweets, 45,000 shares and 67,000 likes on social media. With over 820 million media impressions and an estimated PR value of more than 1.5 million dollars, Coca-Cola saw a 13.55% increase in brand love, as well as 6.7% more weekly drinkers amongst South Asians in the UAE.
Though the booths were placed in labour camps to speak specifically to our target, the online video helped contribute to the overall brand image of Coca-Cola, reaching consumers from multiple tiers and around the world. The brand promise of ‘open happiness’ was ignited in a unique and insightful way, and organically extended across a wide range of platforms.
The Brief
In 2014, we set out to increase brand love amongst one of the UAE’s largest consumer segments – South Asians. In a segment usually only targeted with basic freebies and generic prizes, we had to tap into an insight that our target could truly relate to. We found that majority of the consumer segment was made up of blue collar workers who leave their families back home and come to the country to work for a better future – often on extremely low wages.
Results
The booths brought workers a few minutes of happiness sourced directly from Coca-Cola, therefore increasing affinity and love for the brand. Installed across the UAE, they logged over 140,000 minutes, while the online video took the activation even further with over 3 million views, 14,000 tweets, 45,000 shares and 67,000 likes.
In addition, over 820 million media impressions and an estimated PR value of 1.5 million dollars helped contribute to a 13.55% increase in brand love, with 6.7% more weekly drinkers amongst South Asians in the UAE.
Source: Coke Continuous Consumer Tracker 2014.
Execution
We created phone booths that were powered by Coca-Cola bottle caps and placed them at labour camps across the UAE, inviting workers to enjoy a free 3-minute international call for every bottle cap used. The entire activation was filmed, and the online video that followed was posted to help spread both the idea and results with the rest of the region, and world.
The Situation
In the Middle East, Coca-Cola is still competing for the position of market leader, which is why we needed to find a long-term solution in order to reach our goal.
The Strategy
The activation was held at labour camps across the UAE, but the online video that captured these moments was our tool to extend the happiness that came with the booths. Once shared online, the video quickly got picked up by several media channels and was heavily shared on social platforms. Thanks to the diversity of South Asian nationalities featured in the video itself, Hello Happiness spread across borders and soon became a favourite even in the workers’ home countries.