Build the association of Coca-Cola with Italian meals, overcoming cultural barriers and traditional habits.

Coca-Cola ads have been the subject of a wide variety of objects, but none of these places Coca-Cola in the context of an Italian family meal. Using branded merchandising, we exploited the opportunity for Coca-Cola to infiltrate and gain a firm foothold in the everyday life of Italians. This way we have redrawn the image of Coca-Cola, for the first time on the setting of an Italian table with a vintage flavor. The new setting was the basis for a massive production of merchandising which have become, quite spontaneously, the backbone medium of our campaign.

Merchandising was delivered as a broadcast-level medium. Plate mats, postcards, calendars and posters have yielded over 160 Million impressions in a year, with a total reach safely over 60% of all adults, at no additional cost. TV would have generated the same level of exposure in two weeks, but at an incremental cost of about 1 Million Euro’s.

As we are in Italy, food and cooking are felt in a unique way. Home-cooked meals are generally associated to wine and water, while Coca-Cola is usually associated with special and out-of-home occasions. A perception that couldn’t be challenged by an ordinary TV campaign aired little longer than a month.