As Coca-Cola prepared to launch the all-new Coca-Cola Spiced, their first new permanent flavor in over a decade, they uncovered a major hurdle: no two people could describe the flavor the same way.

Brief:

Let’s turn that disadvantage into an advantage, letting people express what they experience with the drink in service of a launch moment that both drives curiosity and sense of identity that Gen Z values so deeply. Let’s make these adventurous, forward-thinking Gen Zers our flavor ambassadors.

Objectives:

1. Get liquid to this audience’s lips

2. Incentivize them to share their Spiced experiences with others

3. Bring the enlivening, revved up ethos of Spiced and its creative world to life.

The IT’S THIS campaign turned the traditional flavor launch on its head. Instead of telling the world about the new Coca Cola Spiced flavor, we let the world show us what they tasted. We used a mix of AI and SFX to let people turn their impressions of the flavor into works of art, and then turned those into launch films, GIFs and social posts. We even let actress Storm Reid use our AI generator to turn an entire NYC building into her vision of the flavor - and then invited NYC inside to do the same. 7000+ people sampled the soda, generating unique taste-inspired GIFs, filling 1254+ sq ft. of LED screens, flooding social media and garnering $86BN worth of earned media. Making Coca Coca Spiced, Coke’s most innovative launch campaign ever. Try it out yourself at SpicedGenerator.com

Target: an adventurous group we call the “Spicy Intenders.” Spicy Intenders are 18-30 year old nonconformists who live their lives like renegades on a budget. Their “spice” of life is awakened by a chaotic blend of music, comedy and tech as they spearhead the charge into uncharted territories. Their digital platforms of choice include TikTok, Snapchat, Twitch, Apple Music and Hulu.

Approach: turn a trial/sampling moment into a moment of self-expression.

We considered 6 different host cities, researching dozens of different sites all around the country to zero-in on the widest range of exposure, visibility and foot-traffic possible. Once we decided on New York City, we had to consider historical building protections, permitting and various other logistical factors. Going from digital render to reality in under 3 months, we worked closely with city officials as well as our team of production artists to faithfully bring Storm Reid’s AI-generated vision of the Coca-Cola Spiced flavor to life. This weekend-long event then went on to launch a mobile tour across the country, and an online web app where people could use our AI generator to experience the flavor for themselves.

Over 7K visitors

Over 10K samples distributed

6.6B Media: Impressions across NAOU

8.4M impressions + 225k shares: Snapchat lens in 24 hours + highest avg playtime on CCTM to date

1254 sq. feet of video screens