Creating Happiness in Social Media

Young people are disengaging with the soft drinks category. Our objective was to re-engage 16-19 year olds with Coca-Cola by making the ‘Happiness Factory’ creative platform resonate in their lives.  

To achieve this, we prioritised participation, reward and content – and allowing people to experience the brand in their own media worlds. 

We started with social networking, which is built upon giving and sharing.  

By partnering with Bebo, online and on mobile, we got thousands of young people expressing to each other what ‘Happiness’ meant to them, as well as entering ‘Luv’ giveaways, featuring in online B-Box soap episodes, and downloading branded content. To date this remains the strongest performance of any brand activity on Bebo. 

We also looked at gaming, often perceived as selfish, competitive and anti-social.  

To hit this barrier head on we created ‘Gaming Ambassadors’ within Xbox Live that assisted teens’ game play in real time. We also facilitated the first ever UK Xbox point giveaway – creating ‘Happiness’ for teens by rewarding their participation with a currency that meant something to them.  

Bespoke research showed that this activity was over 7 times better at driving engagement with the audience compared to broadcast media.  

Another clear indication that when you engage people on their own terms, you can reap the benefits.