For Coca-Cola’s introduction on TikTok, the brand asked for the formulation of a campaign that would connect different creative communities throughout North America, and promote a TikTok Challenge that would allow individuals to feel included in the brand’s global platform of “Real Magic.” The brief mandates were simple: to promote the brand and Real Magic to Gen-Z through the core idea of “coming together,” and to create a campaign that was creator-and-community-led, and authentic to the platform.

Even when BIPOC creators invent viral trends, non-BIPOC creators are often credited for their work. Using this insight, Coca-Cola launched #ShareTheMagic—an initiative designed to inspire TikTok users to create content that boosts the visibility of the BIPOC creators we tapped to launch and sustain our campaign. We used this hashtag as a CTA for all TikTok’ers to share their expression of Real Magic. We partnered with musical artist Khalid, as well as creator of the viral Renegade dance, Jalaiah Harmon, to launch the challenge with an original dance by Jalaiah to Khalid’s newest single, “Open." We then contracted 20 BIPOC TikTok creators to amplify our campaign to their audiences and center the platform around the creators we were there to champion. They were pinned to the top of the challenge page and flighted in whitelisted paid media campaigns to grow their following, and of course, paid fairly for their work.

In our effort to launch a creator- and community-led campaign, we looked to those within the TikTok community who were creators themselves - who needed a platform. In our research, we discovered that BIPOC Creators do not have the visibility across TikTok that they deserve. This behavior has become so prevalent, injustices of the like specific to TikTok have come to the forefront of media and news outlets throughout 2020 and 2021. Additionally, we discovered that the Gen Z audience is driven to the platform not solely by the desire to play with filters or learn dances, but to share injustices, fight against social inequities, and overall — use their voices to make the world a better place. It was this combination of insights that led to the discovery of how Coca-Cola can work alongside Gen Z to help make the world, and TikTok, a better place.

Coca-Cola enlisted the help of TikTok to create a Branded Hashtag Challenge inspiring users to #SharetheMagic. We teased and launched utilizing original content with Khalid promoting the challenge and his single “Open,” alongside an AR Branded Effect. Paid-In-Feed Video drove mass reach and maintained momentum after the 3-day promo period, and One-Day-Max ad featuring Khalid’s announcement of the challenge provided a premium placement to drive to the challenge page. In parallel, we launched a dance component with Jalaiah Harmon, where she promoted our hashtag and later shouted out participating creators. To sustain campaign awareness and ladder up to our goal of uplifting Black creators, we tapped BIPOC creators across TikTok to engage in the challenge as they saw fit according to their audience and brand. As they released #ShareTheMagic content, they were pinned to the challenge page and whitelisted across paid media to grow their following and share our platform.

To date, #ShareTheMagic received over 11.9B views (9B over TikTok’s benchmark), 1.7MM original videos created by nearly 1MM creators, and grew Coca-Cola’s TikTok handle by 71%.

Part of our campaign goal was being a brand that was enjoyable to work with as a BIPOC creator. We sent creators a survey that asked them what it was like working with Coca-Cola on #ShareTheMagic, and we received overwhelmingly positive feedback. Creators rated:

- Experience working with Coca-Cola (4.8 out of 5).

- Represents what I stand for (4.8 out of 5)

- Desire to develop a long-term relationship (4.8 out of 5)

- Relevant to my audience/following (4.9 out of 5)

Our original Branded Effect received 104MM impressions and 69MM views (+34x benchmark).

Jalaiah’s video promoting the campaign received 3.4B views, 43.5% above benchmark, and 464MM engagements.

Our campaign received 51 PR placements and 951.7MM earned PR impressions.