Coca-Cola is taking inspiration from the League of Legends video game with its latest limited-edition product under its Coca-Cola Creations platform.

Coca-Cola Ultimate Zero Sugar is meant to bring fans a taste of “experience points,” a key objective in the multiplayer video game, Oana Vlad, senior director of global strategy for Coca-Cola Co., said in an interview. The drink is the seventh iteration of Coca-Cola Creations since the platform launched in February of 2022. It’s the first tied directly to a video game, although previous versions Byte and Marshmello involved gaming elements from Fortnite and Twitch, respectively, said Vlad.

The business goal of Creations is not about selling mass quantities of the new flavor, said Vlad, but rather to entice social conversation and forge deeper relationships with consumers. The gaming world, she said, provides a good place for that.

“I think it comes back to where are people today? Where are they forming friendships? Where are they forming memories? Coke is an icon and has been a part of so many memories around family meals over the decades,” Vlad said. “The reality is that people spend their time and forge relationships differently today than in the past. So for Coke, it’s all about always going into the spaces where people are, and engaging in ways that bring joy and optimism. So I think if gaming continues to be one of those worlds then, yes, Coke will be there.”

Gaming is third only to TV and social media in terms of where audiences spend their time, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, known as IAB. But gaming attracts less than 5% of advertiser’s budgets, the group stated in a March report.

The IAB report, published in partnership with MediaScience, attempted to debunk five “misperceptions” about video game advertising. They included the notion that gaming cannot deliver on key objectives throughout the purchase funnel. “Buyers want to make good quality buys that align with their brands and drive all the way through to purchase,” stated Jack Koch, senior VP of research and Insights for IAB. “And while that is absolutely possible in gaming today, perception lags reality.” For instance, the report asserted that “gamers feel and interact with your product” in games—more than they can do with traditional billboards.

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Coca-Cola's partnership with League of Legends parent Riot Games includes features that meld the gaming and real worlds. Users scanning a code on a Coca-Cola Ultimate Zero Sugar can or bottle will be taken to the Coca-Cola Creations hub, where they can take a selfie, and see themselves in “Ultimate” form as a character in the game. An Ultimate Emote Generator, also available at the hub, is an Instagram filter allowing players to view themselves in the style of League of Legends emotes for social sharing. Players can unlock limited edition Ultimate emotes in-game through a series of special missions.

A real-life League of Legends “Nexus Crystal” will appear in Los Angeles, giving fans and consumers the first sip of the new Coca-Cola Creation, the brand said. Similar crystals will also launch in Mexico City and China. The gold-and-black packaging reflects a melding of the Coke and League of Legends brands.

The global campaign was developed by Forpeople, Havas, Virtue and WPP's Coke Open X/Ogilvy and EssenceMediacom. (Open X is the moniker for WPP's Coke-dedicated agency.)

“This is not about advertising; this is not a traditional advertising model,” Vlad said. “What makes us excited is that Coke Creations is bringing something new that makes people do a double-take, and experience something different.”

Vlad said the flavor of the new drink was inspired by “the exhilaration of the different experiences” in League of Legends. About 85% of the flavor is Coke; the other 15% is a “twist” that League of Legends and Coke designed together, Vlad said.

Creations is meant to establish limited-edition experiences rooted in culture while helping to grow the Coke Zero Sugar brand, Vlad said. Its relatively small scale gives Creations an opportunity to experiment and take risks that the larger Coke businesses cannot, Vlad said.

“One extremely valuable learning for us is the importance of being comfortable with some level of risk,” Vlad said. “Part of moving at the speed of culture, and experimenting with technologies, experimenting with partnerships, is a lot of this is learn as we go. And so we’ve really enjoyed … being more open with that. With an amazing icon like Coca-Cola, it’s not always easy to be comfortable taking risks.”