The iconic Kings Cross Coca-Cola sign was switched off in 2014 to make way for a new improved version.

Meanwhile, the fate of the old sign hung in the balance.

The idea for a charity auction was born.

Providing a level playing field for all who have a connection to Sydney’s famous Kings Cross and the special piece of Coca-Cola memorabilia, the charity auction run through eBay, would give everyone a chance to fetch their own piece of history. Not only saving the old sign, but also injecting much needed funds back into the local community by donating 100% of money raised to The Wayside Chapel.

As a Corporate Social Responsibility campaign this gave Coca-Cola a chance to give back to a struggling neighborhood it had so long been synonymous with.

The partnership formed between Wayside and Coca-Cola has endured, leading to many other opportunities to work with and support the local charity.

In 2016, Coca-Cola mounted a campaign to auction the old sign off with a huge billboard announcing the letters were ‘going,going,gone’.

On the 28th August, 2016 the letters were auctioned via eBay. The auction made headlines nationally and internationally raising over $100,000, with all proceeds going to partner charity The Wayside Chapel.

This was covered through owned and earned media- through our partnerships with eBay and The Wayside Chapel.

In September 2016 a newly refurbished sign was officially unveiled. Due to social and media interest the previously overlooked hyphen between Coca-Cola was also given away via a Facebook promotion - earning significant national news coverage.

In January 2017 media were followed up with stories on who bought the letters and why.

Having a story with such a long shelf life from an earned perspective allowed us to follow the interest and news opportunities beyond the announcement and switch on phases.

Tier 1: Media Outputs:

Opportunities to see provided us with the enormous number of 233,264,759 globally.

On social, the campaign gained over 56million social impressions with 96% having a positive sentiment. The campaign contributed 67% to the Coca-Cola TM’s overall positive sentiment vs prior month.

Across Australia and Internationally the story resulted in 31 unique and 606 total Television stories, 70 unique and 138 total online articles, a total of 86 unique and 364 total radio stories as well as 10 print articles.

For such a localised campaign with a focus on local community, these numbers far exceeded all expectations for a Sydney centric story around a local community.

Tier 2 - Target Audience Outcomes:

The greatest amount of reach was in the Kings Cross 'signs’ home state, NSW, where the campaign was recognised by 42% of people. Australia wide the story had almost 30% recognition, with 61% of Australians feeling very/quite positive towards Coca-Cola.