Client – The Coca-Cola Company
Markets – China
Timing – May – September 2014
Agencies/Vendors – Isobar, Leo Burnett, Starcom, Posterscope, Best Shine
Tech Word Cloud – mobile innovation, social engagement, QR codes, HTML 5, high-speed streaming
Coca-Cola leveraged video streaming technology and social media to share their song lyric packaging, generate social buzz and drive engagement.
Coca-Cola was looking for a creative packaging design that would capitalize on the success of the “Share a Coke” campaign, but work within China to keep the brand relevant throughout the summer. The new packaging had to work immediately on both the shelf and at point of sale, and generate buzz on social media.
The core message of the campaign was “Share a Coke,” but in order to resonate more with young people, instead of names, lyrics from over 50 of China’s most popular songs were printed on the labels of Coke bottles and cans. The lyrics were selected from the most recognizable part of the song and printed on the label. Each bottle and can was outfitted with a QR code that allowed the music clip to be played and shared on social media. The clip was accompanied by a “musicon” (music + emoticon), becoming a vehicle of self-expression for Chinese youth in the digital space.
This campaign relied on the seamless integration of several types of technology to make it easy for people to share the Coke “musicons,” and generate a massive amount of social buzz. They employed a sophisticated mobile HTML5 application integrated with high-speed streaming technology and high-definition video assets over the cloud infrastructure. Users could grab 50+ musicons instantly by scanning the QR code on the Coke label and share them to the multiple social networks at any time. The video distribution network carried billions of visits and share throughout the duration of the campaign.
Lyric Coke was a highly integrated marketing campaign that depended on the cooperation of several agencies and tech partners. Conceived, built, and led by Isobar, the ATL creative expression of the idea was handled by Leo Burnett; the non-digital media buying was done by Starcom, while Isobar and Postersocpe were responsible for digital and OOH media, respectively. Best Shine negotiated the music rights for Coca-Cola. The idea of sharing branded music content via social media in China was a first for the industry and required technology integration across social and video sharing platforms to create an exceptional user experience within WeChat.
Lyric Coke delivered on multiple types of brand engagement. The campaign generated over three billion social media impressions and over one million interactions with the brand. It was featured by hundreds of TV stations, newspapers, and online portals across China. Perhaps most importantly, Coca-Cola’s sales increased by 10% when compared to 2013, which is the highest sales volume generated by a summer campaign by Coca-Cola in China to date.