You can’t be happy and not smile.

Smiling is the first thing we learn to do – before we learn to crawl, walk or talk. As we become adults, we smile less, so we wanted to reward smiling – the question was; how?

Skype was perfect. On Skype people tend to keep a closer group of friends (12, rather than the 120 on Facebook); it’s a place people go to connect with those closest to them wherever they are around the world. Furthermore, Skype sees traffic spikes on Christmas Day, Mother’s Day, and Valentine’s Day, all occasions intrinsically linked with happiness. Skype also has credits and a payment system which would allow us to give real world, useful rewards.

It took only a few weeks for AOL o source the technology and create the ad unit for this unique and first-of-its-kind opportunity. We used a high-impact billboard format within the Skype interface, that when interacted with, asked permission to access the webcam.

By rewarding the user with something tangible and fun, we were able to generate a strong level of engagement and by targeting them in an environment when they are communicating with their nearest and dearest, we could leverage a positive feeling that gave ‘choose happiness’ real meaning.

Over two months more than 31,000 interactions with the campaign occurred, 3x greater than Skype forecast. We ran a control/exposed study on the campaign and the Skype partnership increased ad awareness by 8% in the month after the campaign launched, a 10% growth on the same month last year. This level of increase for a universally known brand such as Coca-Cola and for a worldwide campaign such as ‘Happiness’ was significant.

These great results translated into business growth. Month-on-month growth in trial increased by 7% and purchase by 12%.

Using innovative technology that spreads smiles and delivers business results? That’s happiness.