Christmas is a key moment for Coca-Cola: the season has been foundational to its marketing for decades.

It is also filled with big meal occasions – Coke’s biggest driver of growth. Across markets, it was key to increase volume share.

The business objective was to create volume share growth within total beverages by increasing consumption during the Christmas season. To achieve that, we had to strengthen our ties with the holiday.

However, across the world, other brands had started to compete for Christmas icon status.

The north star of our campaign was very clear: reclaim our position as the leader in Christmas advertising. As the brand who had helped create the modern image of Christmas, we needed to cut through again.

A New Tale Was Born

The creative idea was that “Christmas always finds its way”: stories about how the unstoppable force of the Christmas spirit can overcome any challenge.

This modern optimism, that acknowledged the difficulties too, felt very Coca-Cola and allowed us to break out of our very own rulebook.

Alongside a regular 30” and 60” TVC, we broke ground with the brand by launching a holiday mini-series of 3x10 minute films on Amazon Prime, viewed organically alongside other Christmas favourites.

Three unique stories that didn’t shy away from negative emotions across three different genres. A Mexican drama about a city fallen out of love with Christmas, an American comedy about a vampire who feels judged by his girlfriend’s family, and a French romance about rekindling love.

In true Coca-Cola style these played out at mass scale across 148 countries and 14 languages on Prime Video.

To rewrite the rules, we had to look for a new story. Our fresh understanding of people during Christmas was informed by qualitative interviews, social listening and cultural monitoring.

The first breakthrough came from discovering that Christmas is not always the happy time portrayed in advertising and media – it is a rollercoaster with highs and lows. However, in doing so we were able to uncover the unspoken power of Christmas, to monetarily suspend reality – whatever is happening. Despite what’s going on in the world from pandemic, to war, to recessions (even the FIFA World Cup) the Joy of Christmas has the power shine through and overcome.

The second breakthrough came through rethinking media. Research highlighted that people were actively seeking Christmas stories and given streaming had just overtaken broadcast and cable TV, we identified a new way that would engage our audience in a less contested space.

We wanted to create entertainment that told Christmas stories in a way that they usually aren’t talked about.

Rather than telling one story, we decided to create an anthology. The depth and universality of the Christmas Always Finds Its Way platform enabled us to stretch across the big Christmas genres and emotions: comedy, drama and romance.

What happens when Santa meets a vampire? Can a miniature Christmas window display rekindle an old love? Will a magical computer help a town regain its lost Christmas spirit? We created 3 thrilling films about Christmas, togetherness, and discovering the magic that’s all around us.

To produce movie quality content – and deliver a movie launch experience, we partnered with one of the world’s biggest platforms, Amazon Prime Video and distributed in 70+ markets around the world.

Rewriting the Christmas rulebook paid off – ROI: £1.3 (short-term); £3.09 (long-term-est.) [NCS Sales Analysis].

At this noisy time our anthology got 950M impressions globally, with 90% who saw the series spontaneously associating it with Coca-Cola.

Our insight resonated: quant testing showed that 87% enjoyed the anthology. Our VTR was well above Prime Video’s benchmark of 43%. Our average VTR was 56% with two of our films getting rates well above 70%.

Participants considered it “unique” and “attention-grabbing”. It drove brand scores: “Coca-Cola enhances holiday meals” saw an uplift of +8% in the US, +22% in UK and +14% in LATAM.

We found SoV: streaming brought in new viewers at scale. Prime Video viewers were 72% exclusive & incremental in US; 14% in UK. A space-free of other brand’s commercials.

A successful Christmas campaign with global sales up 0.6%.

When you rewrite the rules of Christmas, the world takes notice.