Dreaming of a White Christmas? Find out how one company made this possible for a tropical country! [Fridays: Gorillas of Guerrilla Marketing]
“Ho ho ho!”
Whenever it’s Christmas time, we often hear words about “Christmas magic” and “Christmas is all about sharing.”
―sharing food with neighbors and loved ones, participating in holiday donation drives, giving gifts to people, etc.
What about sharing a white Christmas with people living in a place where it doesn’t snow?
Impossible? No.
With a sprinkle of holiday magic and a dash of surprise, this beverage brand showed us that a white Christmas in a Southeast Asian country IS possible!
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation founded in 1892. It is currently the largest beverage manufacturer with 2,800 products available in over 200 countries.
Sharing the Magic of Christmas Around the World
In 2014, Coca-Cola launched the campaign, #ShareACoke in the United States and released a Christmas variation in the same year―the #ShareAWhiteChristmas.
In this Christmas-themed campaign, the company placed bright red Coca-Cola machines in two countries. The machines had monitors installed in them to show a live video feed of the people living in both countries.
… and here’s the catch!
The two countries where Coca-Cola placed the machines were Finland and Singapore―countries with drastically different Christmas weathers (Finland has a frosty winter weather during Christmas while Singapore experiences humid weather all year round)!
With these extreme weather differences, how would people in these countries #ShareAWhiteChristmas?
This was where the bright red machines came in…
Both machines had their own distinct features based on the country where they were placed. The Coca-Cola machine in Finland sported a shallow hole where people could drop snow into.
Meanwhile, the machine in Singapore didn’t have the hole, but it had an ejector at the top that released faux snow.
So, whenever someone from Finland scoops snow and dumps it into the machine, the other machine in Singapore gets triggered to release fake snow!
One kid from Finland took a shovel beside the Coca-Cola machine, scooped some snow, and dropped it into the hole in the machine.
As he did that, the snow he dug made it to the little girl in Singapore!
… and the more snow was scooped and placed into the machine in Finland, the more fake snow was also released by the machine in Singapore, enabling Singaporeans to experience a white Christmas!
FUN!
Those who tried the machines in both countries also received free Coke.
The company’s hidden message?
Despite being thousands of miles away from one another, people from different parts of the world can always share a Coke.
Click here to watch the video of Coca-Cola’s campaign: Coca-Cola’s #ShareAWhiteChristmas
Was Coca-Cola’s #ShareAWhiteChristmas campaign effective?
A lot of people were touched by the company’s campaign. This reinforced the message that Christmas is all about sharing and spreading the spirit of love, joy, and peace… and that Coca-Cola customers can do that through a bottle of Coke, too!
These were the results of the campaign:
- More than 80,000 people in Finland and Singapore got to interact with each other because of the campaign.
- During the campaign, the #ShareAWhiteChristmas trended for days in tailored Twitter trends for Singapore and Finland.
- Coca-Cola won the 2014 “Advertiser of the Year” award at the Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity in Singapore!
- Due to the added promotion of Coke in the #ShareAWhiteChristmas campaign, the company’s global carbonated beverage volume grew by 1% in the fourth quarter of 2014.
- With the help of the #ShareAWhiteChristmas campaign, Coca-Cola’s soft drink sales increased by 2% in 2014 and Coke consumption rose from 1.7 to 1.9 billion servings in a day.
Seeing these results, we can say that Coca-Cola’s #ShareAWhiteChristmas campaign became a huge hit in 2014!
Pratik Thakar, ASEAN and APAC Head for Content and Design Excellence at the Coca-Cola Company, shared his thoughts about the campaign:
“This spectacular video brings to life one of the most exciting parts of the festive season, even in the warm climate of Singapore. It’s not just about snow from Finland being brought to Singapore, but also about strangers from around the world engaging in the true spirit of giving. This is what Coca-Cola is all about―sharing happiness.”
A round of applause for Coca-Cola and its heartwarming guerilla marketing campaign that not only connected strangers from around the world but also embodied the company’s “sharing” value and Christmas spirit!
With a timely and heartwarming campaign, the company effectively promoted its products, left a positive impression, and gave consumers a memorable experience by connecting people from different parts of the world.
Get inspired by Coca-Cola’s #ShareAWhiteChristmas campaign!
Effectively promote your brand through a fun, unique, and engaging brand activation that will resonate with your target market.
Unleash your creativity in planning your own holiday guerrilla marketing campaigns!
About The Dynamic Marketing Communiqué’s
“Fridays: Gorillas of Guerrilla Marketing”
Jay Conrad Levinson (1984) said that Guerrilla Marketing “works because it’s simple to appreciate, easy to execute, and inexpensive.”
Guerrilla Marketing is unconventional.
Looking beyond the traditional ways of advertising, marketers, and advertisers need to spice things up in order for their brand to have campaigns that not only make an impact but also stick to their target market’s mind.
Guerrilla Marketing usually aims to have direct contact with consumers.
This type of direct contact should spark an emotional reaction that leads to consumers effectively remembering the brand.
It’s about making a big impression and making that impression last a long time (if not forever).
Guerrilla Marketing can be inexpensive.
The effect of this is being able to create a buzz around the brand, and the strategy used to market it. Almost everything is passed around through word-of-mouth.
Word-of-mouth is one of the greatest outcomes and it usually doesn’t cost anything.
This is every business’ or brand’s dream!
Every Friday, we publish tips, examples, and other useful content on unconventional ways of marketing and promotion.
Learn more about how to grab your target market’s attention and make an amazing first and lasting impression without having to spend a lot of money.
Businesses don’t really need to spend much for a guerrilla campaign. You do not need a big budget to be successful. You just need creativity and a good imagination.
Hope you’ve found this week’s guerrilla marketing insight interesting and helpful.
Stay tuned for next Friday’s Gorillas of Guerrilla!
Cheers,
Kyle Yu
Head of Marketing
Valens Dynamic Marketing Capabilities
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