Continuing Coke's global 'Open Happiness' platform, the client wanted to create something that would bring people together to do something fun and turn strangers into friends in the process.

The final design was decided upon due to its audacious simplicity. Months of refinements and reducing of elements led us to the finished design that was both ‘brand familiar’ and yet also distinctive and new.The vending machine was stripped bare then rebuilt with sensors in its panels to become the first vending machine that recognises a human hug. To top it off and add to the mystery, no instructions were present on the machine apart from the two words on the front in the Coca-Cola font that read-‘Hug Me’.

This pinball game hit the jackpot! A huge 23% uplift in purchase intent translates into 4.2m more cans and US$2m incremental annualised sales just in Singapore (Source: TNS Research April2012,agency calculations).‘The Coke Hug Machine’ achieved an impressive level of brand fame within 2 weeks, reaching 82% of Singaporean university age students. Research compared those exposed to ‘The Coke Hug Machine’ versus a non-exposed control group: Purchase intent:Saw 'Hug Me' 40% - Control group 17% - Uplift +23%Coke brings happiness:Saw 'Hug Me' 45% - Control group - 30% - Uplift +15%Coke encourages friendship: Saw 'Hug Me' 46% - Control group 11% - Uplift +35%Media coverage over 2 weeks generated 116m+ impressions, including 1.5m+ video views of the stunt (source: agency media monitoring). Coverage spread worldwide:• Network TV: ABC Good Morning America/CBS/CNN/NBC etc• Online news: The Huffington Post/Forbes/TIME/mashable/MSN/Yahoo News/Sina/Herald Sun/China Daily etc• Social media networks: Twitter/Facebook/YouTube/YouKu/Sina Weibo, etc.A very healthy return on a US$20,000 investment and 1,000 free cans of Coke.