Coca-Cola is launching a new teen-focused digital campaign that will span across multiple websites, and incorporate a series of games, GIFs and videos.
The move is part of the company's overall ad strategy for the year, "The Ahh Effect," created by Wieden & Kennedy Portland. The idea is to makes the drink itself the focus of the creative work --a strategy that started with "Mirage," this year's choose-your-own-adventure Super Bowl effort.
Unveiled today by Coke exec Pio Schunker, who serves as senior VP of integrated marketing communications, the new campaign spans 61 URLs. Each has a different number of "h's" appended at the end of the "Ahh", containing what Mr. Schunker called a "snackable piece of content" that could be a game, a series of GIFs, or maybe a funny video.
The campaign was hinted at during a series of conversations the brand had with AdAge earlier this year, when it said that Super Bowl creative will be a kickoff to a year's worth of marketing activity, with the goal being to have a brand idea that spreads over a host of communications - each specific to a certain audience, or time.
"Coke is the ultimate in refreshment, and what your first response when drinking Coke should be a hearty 'Aah,'" he said.
To that end, the sound-effect is woven throughout the programs, with the brand owning multiple version of the URL "Aah."
Different pieces of content are served up depending on how many "h's" are entered. For example, one site gets you immersed in what looks to be a bubbly class of Coke. Moving your cursor moves the bubbles around, which emit satisfied "Ah's" as they do so. Another site asks you to aim ice cubes into a glass of Coke, while a counter on the right shows what temperature the drink is at, the idea being, said Mr. Schunker, to communicate that the best temperature to enjoy Coke is 37 degrees. Another site features the new chill-activated Coke cans performing an impressive dance routine.
The umbrella site is www.ahh.com, (two h's) which invites you to "explore the world of ahh," and adds that while there may be many ways to explain how Coca-Cola makes you feel, there's "only one way to describe them."
All the experiences are not live yet, there are 17 up so far. While the overarching creative is by Wieden, Mr. Schunker said that the brand is also involving three content creators - media partners like Alloy and Vevo, teen partners who will be encouraged to submit "Ahh" ideas, and "creative influencer communities" like artists and students who will submit ideas on "What Aah means to them."
The brand plans to create bi-weekly site reporting systems to understand which URLs are popular and which aren't. Those that perform poorly will be eliminated and replaced. The campaign is best experienced on mobile, Coca-Cola said -- iOS and Android platforms, with no support for Blackberry presently -- a feature that was driven by research into teen behavior. The campaign will be promoted via digital media, and the "Ahh" URL will also be appended on the inside of 16- and 20-ounce bottles of Coke.
Mr. Schunker said that Coke envisions this as a multi-year, iterative campaign.
