Coke and Marvel team up on collectible cans and digital characters

A new collaboration between Coca-Cola and Marvel will give comic collectors a lot to collect—both in real life and the virtual world. Coke and Disney are bringing the Marvel universe to life in a campaign that includes limited-edition pack designs featuring 30 Marvel characters. Cans will picture various Marvel heroes and villains, with scannable codes that will bring each character to life through augmented reality on Coca-Cola’s website. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs “This campaign is an expansion of how we go to market and is a new way of storytelling,” said Mindy Hamilton, senior VP of global marketing partnerships for The Walt Disney Co., which owns Marvel. “Because our characters and stories are woven deeply into the fabric of global culture, whether targeting casual or super fans, we were uniquely positioned to create more engaging stories in short-format mediums. We were able to tell the Coca-Cola story through the Marvel lens.” The collaboration, known as “The Heroes,” will be supported through a global campaign including new creative set to run across TV, cinema and other video platforms, as well as digital and out-of-home. “It feels like a love letter to comics, which is great for Marvel, because the way we think about it at Marvel is that comics are the fuel that powers the engine,” said Hamilton. The campaign is led by Gut with support from Coke’s dedicated agency WPP Open X, including VML, Oglivy and BCW along with Momentum and Forpeople. Partizan’s Antoine Bardou-Jacquet directed the spot, with other production support from Landia. For Coca-Cola, the strategic underpinning of the campaign is in emphasizing “uplift” as a pillar of the Coke brand—authenticity and inclusivity are its other pillars, said Islam ElDessouky, global head of creative strategy and content for Coca-Cola. Coke considered many ways to relay this message before reuniting with Marvel. “I think the brand is very keen to uplift humanity, uplift people—whether physically or emotionally or socially,” ElDessouky said. “This is very much an uplifting story.” Like many Coke campaigns of late, technology plays a pivotal role. Coca-Cola Co. has poured tons of resources into AI-based marketing. This time, it’s an augmented reality play turning physical collectibles into digital ones. The virtual characters, as they are on the can, are rendered in Coke red. The digital characters in AR interact with the user, which creates “exclusive content that you wouldn't see on film or on social—the regular channels,” ElDessouky said. Collectibles and contest prizes Coke and Marvel previously teamed for a Super Bowl ad in 2016 and an Avengers tie-in in 2019. Coke’s partnerships with Disney date back 60 years. Unlike previous collaborations, “The Heroes” is not tied to a single movie property or character, providing a freedom of storytelling and an “evergreen” feel, said Hamilton. Deploying that many Marvel characters at once is also a first for a Disney collaboration, she said. An associated contest will offer prizes including Disney cruises, Marvel movie screenings, collectible “influencer boxes,” autographed memorabilia and Disney+ subscriptions. Prizes will vary by country. Packages featuring the Marvel characters go on sale today in 50 countries. While collectible packages tend to boost sales, there are other benefits, ElDossouky said. “Collectibles, we know that they give us. A good boost of transactions, but more importantly, they give us a massive boost of association,” he said. “Creation and association is key, and it was also one of the main drivers of why we wanted to partner with Disney and Marvel in specific on this one. If you’re a fan of Marvel and a fan of Coke, you don’t want to see a collaboration that has a values misfit. You want to see a collaboration that you feel, ‘Oh, that makes sense. I'm looking forward to it.’”

Coke and Marvel team up on collectible cans and digital characters

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