Coca-Cola Light needed to regain salience and market share with its core consumers- women. The usual strategy was not delivering, but we pinpointed an opportunity in a ‘traditional’ tactical activity: having a contour bottle restyled by a top fashion designer. This was the perfect way to appeal to the target, and we scaled it up to a fully fledged fashion event, establishing a strong link between Light and top style. 8 fashion icons, all women, designed 32 bottles for Coca-Cola Light. We launched an event framed in the Milan Fashion week, a party with 600 attendees among stylists, the press and public stakeholders; where woman-sized bottle models ‘walked’ a life-size catwalk. The bottles became collectibles auctioned by Sotheby’s, display material for OOH and top window shops, design for limited edition productions, and the subject of TV and print ads and collectible postcards. The event was widely covered by magazines and TV (over 48 mio OTS’ in a month from 70 articles), L.E. bottles were re-circulated online through EBAY, purchase intent leaped up 10% and the 100,000 € collected by Sotheby’s in favour of the Abruzzo earthquake victims became a further booster of reputation.

Each stylist designed 1 sleeve for a L.E. line and 3 more to be used as display material. First we launched a Fashion Show in Milan, the venue being the Palazzo Reale, a PR-first. We organized a party with 600 attendees including stylists, the press and public stakeholders, with man-sized bottles arrayed along the access red carpet and parading a catwalk. During the party Sotheby’s held a charity auction in favour of the victims of the Abruzzo earthquake. Newspaper and magazine press releases and 3’ TV vignettes covered the event. The styled bottles were then displayed in fashion streets in Milan, and the 8 L.E.’s were displayed in 2 of the top fashion retail stores of the city. During the Fashion Week, over 2000 shops across Italy hosted corners where bottles and branded coolers were sold. Resonance was granted by promo postcards and a print catalogue distributed through female magazines.

1Mio contour bottles were sold during the Milan Fashion Week in the PoS activations, and over 50,000 full-body sleeves in one week at the customized corner at La Rinascente alone. Media covered the launch event with 70 articles in 1 month, with an estimated yield of 48,000,000 impressions. According to Millward Brown trackings, vs. pre-campaign readings, brand awareness and purchase intent were up +10%, while brand attributes ‘It’s a cool product’ and ‘Trend-setting’ gained 30%. Moreover, 100,000 € were collected during the auction in favour of the earthquake victims.