Coca-Cola’s greatest strengths have always been its optimistic image and strong distribution chain that made it available within an arm’s reach of anyone who desires a Coke.

However, as Covid took hold around the globe, these two strengths were put to jeopardy.

As lives were at risk and jobs were threatened, a wave of sadness and pessimism took over people’s minds.

To make matters worse, social distancing and lockdowns closed stores, cafes and bars, reducing opportunities for people to get together and share a Coke. These closures had a direct and hard impact on our sales.

- In January 2020, sales of cans and bottles topped 15.2MM boxes.

- By April 2020 this number went down to 5.7MM.

A catastrophic 62% fall in a matter of a few months.

The situation was critical, and we needed to stimulate retail sales of cans and small bottles, to replace the huge loss.

The Alphabet generated a new brand experience: a "language" that, through the product, invited people to express themselves.

However, the conversation was in people’s hand. They could use it to write whatever they wanted, so it was essential to present the Alphabet’s purpose and suggest ways to use it. As risky as it was, this was necessary to certify Coca-Cola’s belief as the spreader of optimism.

How this story unfolded?

PRESENTATION:

Launching a powerful awareness campaign on the TV show with the highest audience in Brazil and most commented in social media: Big Brother.

EDUCATION:

Inviting more than 25 Creators -influencers who are experts in generating conversation through new social media languages- to show different ways of writing.

CELEBRATION:

Sharing the content people produced. There were people revealing their new baby’s names. Women's Day celebrations, birthday-themed parties, bands names, restaurants using cans to promote themselves. Love messages and marriage proposals.

In a world with an optimism deficit people were hungry to combat pessimism and connect safely.

Once social distancing began, as much as pessimism prevailed, we noticed people were constantly looking for ways to connect safely with others and live positive moments. Zoom parties, artists playing on webcams, people applauding workers through their windows.

These were examples of how optimism was still alive, but we were all improvising. People needed a way to share their optimism and Coca-Cola could prove its promise by helping them.

We transformed single-serve packs to create an experience, with a solution that reinforced our promise while generating purchase: Coca-Cola Alphabet. Cans, that weren’t only cans: they were letters to share your optimism with the world. The idea was intrinsically generating: to form a word it was necessary to buy many SKUs.

The Alphabet generated a new brand experience: a "language" that, through the product, invited people to express themselves.

However, the conversation was in people’s hand. They could use it to write whatever they wanted, so it was essential to present the Alphabet’s purpose and suggest ways to use it. As risky as it was, this was necessary to certify Coca-Cola’s belief as the spreader of optimism.

PRESENTATION:

Launching a powerful awareness campaign on the TV show with the highest audience in Brazil and most commented in social media: Big Brother.

EDUCATION:

Inviting more than 25 Creators who are experts in generating conversation through new social media languages to show different ways of writing.

CELEBRATION:

Sharing the content people produced. There were people revealing their new baby’s names. Women's Day celebrations, birthday-themed parties, bands names, and restaurants using cans to promote themselves. Love messages and marriage proposals.

1. In January-2020, sales of single-serve packs topped 15.2MM cases. By April-2020, this number decreased to 5.7MM. After the campaign rollout in January-2021, our overall volume reached 16.3MM cases, surpassing pre-pandemic levels by 7%.

This was noticed during all campaign, in the 40 countries it was exported to.

2. We increased the volume per trip to the POS by +20.2%, exceeding the goal by 8%.

The Alphabet played a key role. It was necessary to buy several cans to form words, encouraging a larger purchase and an increase in volume per trip to the POS.

3. Alphabet became the most shared and talked campaign in Coca-Cola Brazil's history, with an 18% share rate (vs 2% of previous benchmarks and 3x bigger than our goal) and 272.000 mentions, 108% more than the benchmark.

The possibility of writing anything with it was directly responsible for these results.