In 2009 The Coca Cola Company released their global marketing campaign ‘Open Happiness.’ The campaign launch on TV show American Idol in January 2009 was accompanied by print and outdoor advertising in the US, with the full campaign being released over the next 6 months worldwide. The UK multi million pound campaign, bought and planned by Vizeum, had a media mix that included traditional advertising techniques like TV and radio. Fully interactive online, mobile and outdoor elements and even cross-promotion with the games giant Xbox. Vizeum needed to decide how to split the budget across a wide variety of media to communicate Coca-Colas message to as many consumers as possible, in the most cost effective way.

The TV commercial was the most recent and third spot of the ‘Happiness Factory’ series created by Wieden + Kennedy.  A young man walks towards a vending machine to buy a bottle of Coke and yawns.  This yawn triggers a succession of yawns throughout the characters working inside the vending machine. An injection of Coke is needed to wake up and revitalise the workers, whose yawns become the 5 note coca cola whistle and the upbeat song ‘open happiness’. They pass on their new energised mood by preparing and delivering the mans coke so he can have the same feeling.

“The first thing that I want to do, Make sure that you feel it too,  So I’m not the only one…”  

 Green, C. (2008) Open Happiness.  Atlantic Records.

The entire open happiness campaign is based on that uplifting feeling of happiness and how to transfer this to the audience. Some companies may need more informative commercials to establish who they are and what they do. Coca-cola has such a well known brand it can afford to sell its products with an entirely emotional message. Media Mix is effective for emotional advertising because it can deliver the message more personally or directly to its audience. It also engages an audience to submerge themselves more fully in a concept or theme.

Coke can create fanciful and fantastic ads in the “Happiness Factory” campaign because it has spent decades building a connection between Coke, optimism, and joy in living. But newer brands still need to focus on establishing their functional credentials even when their ultimate intent is to “ladder up” to an emotional benefit.

Hollis, N. (2010) Emotion in Advertising: Pervasive, Yet Misunderstood.

The first ‘Happiness Factory’ TV Commercial was part of the ‘Coke Side of life’ campaign launched in 2006. This was Coca-Cola’s first Global campaign in over a decade, a very successful attempt to bring relevancy back to their brand. The award winning animation, aired in over 100 countries and became hugely popular when it brought viewers inside a magical land inside a Coca-Cola vending machine. Introducing the audience to the characters that bottle the coke, and happiness in the process, for the first time. This time around the Open Happiness campaign added a new ingredient to its media mix, a music single release.

“I want all my friends to come, Cause it’s now or never, Learn the words and sing together…”

Green, C. (2008) Open Happiness. Atlantic Records.

The soundtrack to this latest Happiness Factory TV commercial used the coca cola 5 note melody and was released as a music single called ‘Open Happiness’.  It was a collaboration, between Cee-Lo Green, Patrick Stump from Fall Out Boy, Brendon Urie from Panic at the Disco, Travis McCoy from Gym Class Heroes and Janelle Monae. The song fused rock and hip-hop to create a unique sound and a broad demographic of listeners in the process. Even the lyrics were carefully crafted to emphasise Coca-Colas message. An exclusive release packaged for iTunes was made available that featured a behind the scenes video. A music video featuring the artists inviting some pre teens to come, sing, dance and be happy in a fantasy world, was released alongside the track. Meanwhile 200 million Coca-Cola cans and packs in France and the UK had a redesign which included details of the Open Happiness single.

The pioneer social networking site MySpace premiered the track worldwide in march 2009 just one of many online elements. Already having 3.2 million facebook fans Coke embraced the Web 2.0 generation in this campaign with promotions including an MSN games application and a “Happiness Hub” microsite on Bebo. This greatly strengthened their online presence and campaign within the youth market.  The open happiness website itself took advantage of Youtube’s embedded video functionality to feature the TV commercial and other videos related to the open happiness single.

“Adding a musical element to our popular Happiness Factory franchise is a natural progression to really making it a trans-media property,” said Umut Ozaydinli, global music marketing manager, The Coca-Cola Company. “Working with established artists like Cee-Lo Green and Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy and up and coming artists like Janelle Monae really brings together a unique mix of genres of music.”

The Coca-Cola Company (2009) Open Happiness with Coca-Cola Happiness Factory Music – About.

The Xbox partnership involved giving away 3 million Xbox loyalty scheme points and a Coca-Cola skin that enabled Xbox gamers to customize their dashboard. Leading names in gaming also gave out tips and advice as part of the campaign. In order to help capture its fans imaginations and encourage them to engulf themselves in the animated fantasy worlds that is the ‘Happiness Factory’, Coke launched a gaming website alongside the ‘open happiness’ campaign. Coke fans could explore the inside of the Coke vending machine, interacting with parts of the fantasy world as one of the workers. The game was popular for people of all ages, even younger children were attracted to the ‘cute’ animated characters.

The Media mix represents the distribution of the advertising budget throughout whichever combination of media achieves the campaign’s objectives. In the Open Happiness campaign Vizeum split their advertising Above and Below the line to keep up with new media trends and target Coca-Cola’s consumers as individuals. Outdoor advertising included Coca-Cola sign in Piccadilly Circus London used to promote the Open Happiness single. People passing Coke’s world famous Piccadilly Circus billboard could download Happiness Factory ringtones for free using Bluetooth. This gave a new interactive slant on the traditional, and in this case iconic, Coke billboard advertisements.

New media can be daunting for some demographics others will not come into contact with it. Some people suggest it to be ineffective for this reason. Vizeum media planners combined their knowledge of different platforms, analysis of data and research with creative thinking to develop the best strategy possible to deliver the Open Happiness campaign to Coca-Cola’s target audiences. Their media buyers negotiated for and purchase media space to employ  the more traditional aspects of the campaign including TV and Radio.. This combination of media gave Coke a further reach beyond that of conventional advertising. Without overlooking demographics that are not as comfortable or familiar with new media technologies.

“Well hello is this thing on is anybody listening…”

Green, C. (2008) Open Happiness. Atlantic Records.

Different audiences consume media differently and it is a planner’s responsibility to ensure the most appropriate media is used to reach the correct audience. In order to choose which media mix is best for each campaign research into the target demographic of the product or service must be undertaken. Already knowing that the “Happiness Factory” was The Coca‑Cola Companies highest rated commercial ever tested the Open Happiness TV commercial was made the third installment in this successful series. Using the single release as the commercials soundtrack meant that radio stations and music channels would air the familiar song acting as secondary advertising.

The partnership with Xbox drew in audiences from the technology savvy gaming subculture. With interactive online elements, such as the gaming website, to hold their interest and encouraged word of mouth promotion amongst peers. The open happiness single release was hugely successful with leading names in various genres coming together on one song, their faces becoming a part of the campaign. With the separate artists main target demographics being pre teens to young adults from their respective music subcultures, Coca- Cola were able to aim the campaign at young people in general without narrowing their reach.

Cathryn Sleight, the marketing director at Coca-Cola Great Britain, said the different platforms helped the brand reach different consumers in innovative ways. “For example using key teen passion points of music, social networking and gaming allow us to reach a new generation of Coke fans, whilst more traditional routes continue to reach the older demographic,” she said.

Fitzsimmons, C. (2009) Coca-Cola launches new ‘Happiness Factory’ ad

“The sun will come back tomorrow There’s a message in a bottle”

Green, C. (2008) Open Happiness. Atlantic Records.

The open happiness campaign immediately captured a generation of media hungry and Internet enabled teenagers and young adults, then fast spread throughout the generations. The media mix approach is powerful for companies with a strong and unique creative message that want to reach as vast a group of consumers as possible, to maximize familiarity of their message. Vizeum used an innovative media mix to achieve this with maximum effect. Winning an online game or dancing to music brings feelings that traditional advertising finds harder to induce. The open happiness media mix transcended limitations by combining countless types of media into communicating one uplifting message, To open a coke is to open happiness.

Bibliography

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The Coca-Cola Company (2009) Open Happiness with Coca-Cola Happiness Factory Music – About. [online] Available at: http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/openhappiness/about.html [Accessed: 24 Oct 2012].