2015 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

A large portion of the UAE's population is made up of blue-collar workers from the Asian Subcontinent. These workers earn the lowest wages in the country. By employment contract, they only get to return home every three years. In a segment usually only targeted with basic freebies and generic prizes, Coca-Cola needed to increase affinity and love for the brand in way that the target could relate to.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

We took under-the-cap promos further by converting Coca-Cola bottle caps to currency. The idea of the Hello Happiness Phone Booths allowed workers to use their Coca-Cola bottle caps for a free 3-minute international call instead of coins. Placed at labour camps across the UAE, workers had easy access to connect with their families more often, while keeping our product at the centre of the promotion.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable 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 & MEMAC Ogilvy PR (approved by MEPRA).

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

For labourers who consume soft drinks on a daily basis, an incentive that they could relate to is all we needed to help make them choose Coca-Cola over the competitor. Since the workers earn low wages and have to keep international phone calls to a limit due to high calling rates, we offered them a way to connect with their families more often – an instant prize that came with every bottle of Coke.