Coca-Cola and crayon are working on a super creative campaign next year called “Expedition 206”. In a nutshell, Coca-Cola is enlisting three happiness ambassadors to visit all 206 countries where the company sells its products. The expedition will last throughout 2010. The ambassadors’ goal will be to “seek out what makes people happy and share their happiness and enthusiasm with the rest of the world.”
Naturally, social media will play a huge role in sharing these happy stories. The happiness ambassadors will document their travels by using social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr. Fans will be encouraged to get involved by acting as “virtual travel agents” and giving the brand ambassadors suggestions on cool places to go and fun things to do in each country.
It seems as if the Coke folks may have taken a few notes from Ford’s Fiesta Movement. However, I don’t see anything wrong with taking a few ideas from an already successful campaign and adding in new elements to make it unique.
Check out this MediaPost article for more details: “Coke Ambassadors Taking Social Media Old School With Around The World Trip”.
I’ll admit that I’m more of a Pepsi aficionado (simply based on taste), but this campaign is intriguing and I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out next year. What I like about this campaign is that real fans will be sharing stories of optimism and happiness…all related to this one brand. It’s a much better idea than Coke doing the storytelling. If I had to make a choice right now, I’d say this campaign will be wildly successful.
What are your thoughts? Do you see this campaign failing or succeeding?