Sprite, a nearly 40-year-old brand in China, needed to get noticed by Gen Z – the category’s biggest source of growth.

However, deep-pocketed local newcomer Genki Forest was outspending Sprite 2:1 by pouring money into trendy celebrities, content sponsorships, and crossovers to grab attention.

In recent years, Sprite had consistently lost market share to Genki Forest. The fast-approaching summer season was the sparkling category’s crucial battleground in which Sprite needed to fight back.

We couldn’t win by going head-to-head with Genki. Instead, we had to tear up the typical youth marketing playbook and find a new approach.

We needed to communicate Sprite’s “Heat Happens, Stay Cool” global brand promise in an authentic, locally relevant manner. We sought to deeply connect with young Chinese consumers on their own terms, yet in an ‘only Sprite can do’ way.

Chinese Gen Z view themselves as completely distinct from other generations. Their self-expression is completely distinct, too - rapid-fire social banter using a shorthand of memes, emojis, acronyms and slang.

“Give me a 1982 Sprite to chill out” is the epitome of this sociocultural phenomenon. It’s a classic meme mocking the extravagance of drinking a $47,000 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild wine when a ¥3 Sprite is a more affordable way to calm the senses.

For years, stickers and hashtags with this famous catchphrase have been reshared repeatedly in reaction to life’s heated moments. In the past 90 days alone, 2.5M Douyin (TikTok) users had engaged with the meme which captured the current youth zeitgeist.

But 1982 Sprite didn’t really exist…until now. We decided to harness the social currency of 1982 Sprite to craft a campaign that would chime with Gen Z – and help them stay cool in an increasingly heated world.

We made Gen Z’s meme come true by launching a limited-edition product and tongue-in-cheek campaign that riffed on fine wine culture via never-done-before experiences.

Three pillars guided our strategy to surprise and delight Gen Z:

SOCIAL-LED CREATIVITY: 1982 Sprite was born on social media, and we stayed true to its origins by playing with consumers on Douyin (short video, livestreaming, and social commerce capabilities) and Weibo (Chinese X with similar ability to spark discussion).

DATA-INSPIRED ACTIVATION: We mined Douyin’s rich data to understand 1982 Sprite meme users and designed our activations to appeal to these meme enthusiast (i231) F&B lovers (i183) who enjoy a sense of ceremony (i219). Social listening revealed that World Emoji Day trended on Weibo each year.

UNEXPECTED EXPERIENCES: As a brand reacting to our famous namesake meme, we went above and beyond standard platform activations. We dreamt big then convinced media partners to make it happen.

Can you auction a bottle of Sprite? We did! The FIRST-EVER live auction on Douyin sparked an online bidding frenzy. As bids for the ‘first press’ of 1982 Sprite topped 70 times retail price, the auction went viral on Weibo and spawned a lucrative resale market.

Then, we opened Chateau Sprite in 100+ locations across China. Our elegant, immersive tasting rooms with tuxedo-ed staff and live classical music in shopping mall plazas, Walmarts, and convenience stores appealed exactly to Gen Z’s absurdist tastes.

And we orchestrated paid media, influencers, meme creators, and Sprite’s own account to hijack World Emoji Day as it trended on Weibo. We paid tribute to our product’s origins by refreshing the old 1982 Sprite memes with the new bottle, further igniting social buzz!

We set a new precedent in media activation deploying social audience planning and co-creating new formats to ensure 1982 Sprite went viral…again.

Sprite was embraced by consumers for its hilarious reaction to a youth culture staple boosting brand engagement, affinity, and sales.

The first auction for a bottle of Sprite in history was a historic success:

• 5.1M live auction views; 100K+ auction bids

• #1 beverage livestream on Douyin

• #1 beverage sales on Douyin

And our campaign turned 1982 Sprite from social meme to social currency, smashing all expectations:

• 2.2BN total impressions (1.4X vs. estimated)

• 9.9M total engagements (-65% CPE vs. benchmark)

• 45X higher discussion volume than the past 6 months combined!

• 109 articles worth $1.5M in earned media value

Speaking Gen Z’s language massively boosted brand love among 13- to 29-year-olds (vs. pre-campaign):

• +31% spontaneous awareness

• +17% consideration

• +19% affinity

• +28% ‘sets trends’

Crucially, 1982 Sprite helped grow the overall Sprite business as market share rose +2.1 points year-on-year.