For some years now, Coca-Cola has been strategically targeting the biggest passion points of Pakistanis which include music, tea, food, and sports. Cricket is undeniably one of the nation's biggest passions.

For decades PEPSI has created a strong association with the sport, which is why Coca-Cola was looking for an opportunity to steal the ball and take ownership of this passion.

After 23 years of their beverage rival dominating the cricketing landscape, Coca-Cola became the official partner of Cricket World Cup 2019. With the clutter of advertising during the cricket World Cup, the brand required a novel campaign idea that would unite people and celebrate the biggest sporting event in the country.

Our idea was simple: to take the word "extremist" and invert its meaning, applying it to more positive emotions. We wanted to show who "Pakistani extremists" really are; people who are extreme in their feelings of hope, passion, care and love.

These extremities bring Pakistanis together and make them uniquely Pakistani.

The world perceives Pakistanis as extremists. They see us as a divided nation, infused with violence and bloodshed.

The truth is that Pakistanis are extremists, but in love, joy care and compassion.

Coca-Cola has always targeted teens and millennials, but for this campaign we aimed to create a strong universal message that subverted the negative connotation of "extremist" and replaced it with a more positive meaning. Since the message applied to all, we targeted every proud Pakistani citizen.

We created a campaign that celebrated the emotions for which Pakistanis truly are extremists about. The messaging was a clever take on the word ‘extremists’ and we showcased beautiful moments that were uniquely Pakistani.

The campaign ran from 3rd June, 2019 to 1st August, 2019 on TV and digital media platforms. The TVC was later banned on state media for being too controversial due to the use of the word "extremist," but that's when the campaign actually took on a life of its own. The execution took over social media through the audience themselves. #ExtremelyPakistani became a memorable hashtag and helped return a sense of pride amongst Pakistanis by changing a negative label to a positive one.

Media Output: 20M+ views on digital with 19.2 Mil reach during the campaign.

Target Audience Outcomes: The biggest gain of this campaign was an unprecedented achievement in the history of the brand. Coca-Cola Pakistan became the first country in the world to hit the coveted 6.0 Brand Love Score (BLS) among teens (up +0.4 pts compared to the BLS before the campaign).

Recruitment and weekly consumption increased to 65% and 56% respectively versus pre-campaign; this was the highest recruitment and consumption that Coca-Cola has ever achieved in Pakistan.

For Coca-Cola, these mammoth achievements were the nation’s verdict that Coca-Cola was loved and preferred far above all the competitors. We had sought out to challenge our competition and gain an advantage in the context of Cricket, but this campaign gave Coca-Cola an advantage far beyond expectations - solidifying Coca-Cola’s position as the #1 preferred beverage brand in the country.