Taking Home Happiness was a seasonal campaign that was activated in the Dubai International Airport to further build Coca-Cola’s brand love initiative amongst South Asians living in the UAE. The project awarded expats going home for the holidays with free extra baggage allowance, allowing them to carry more presents home, with bottle labels that doubled as special excess baggage tags. The activity took place on a small scale but was then used as a PR story starting with a video that was shared online.
The Brief
The goal was to build brand love amongst South Asians in a cost-effective way. This lead to the aim of creating a small scale activity that could be amplified through PR in order to reach a wider audience within a limited budget. Research found several insights unique to the target, from which the issue of excess baggage during peak seasons was identified. The matter wasn’t just about excess baggage, but about the fact that our target only got to see their families once in 1-2 years, and therefore placed a lot of importance on taking gifts to share with them.
Execution
The on-ground leg was activated at the Dubai International Airport in December for the duration of 3 days, during which 100 passengers flying to the Philippines, India and Pakistan were given free excess baggage tags from Coca-Cola. A video of the activity was then posted online during the following month to trigger the conversation amongst a wider audience.
100 bottles were given to passengers on their way home for the holidays to the Philippines, India and Pakistan – totalling in 2,500 kilos of free excess baggage. While the online video of the activation was viewed 1,069,174 times on YouTube alone, with a positive response of over 19,000 retweets and shares across multiple platforms including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs. The campaign was also featured on several local and international websites
The Strategy
Our strategy was to connect with consumers on an emotional level in order to build a positive association with the brand. This project was a part of a larger plan to increase market share via small scale activities and promotions within the same theme. Thus far, Coca-Cola’s key competitor had been actively speaking to the target through other passion points such as cricket and Bollywood, which is why we decided to tap deeper into the real problems and needs of the group in order to build a long-term connect between the target and brand.