The winning agency will devise a major new campaign for the core Coke brand in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, though it is understood that other national Coca-Cola offices in Southeast Asia and India will also have the option to run the ads in their markets as well.
Coke, which has experimented with alignments at national, multi-country and regional levels, is thought to be looking for a way to consolidate budgets to bankroll bigger campaigns, creating a more consistent brand image without overly sacrificing local focus.
This approach to regional advertising is believed to be new for Coke in Asia, though the soft drinks giant has already tried it in Latin America, where it sparked a domino effect as the agency that provided the winning idea was able to rapidly secure more Coke work in the region.
It is unclear whether Coke plans to revise its regional roster following the pitch, with agency duties currently largely divided on a country by county basis in the core markets where the campaign will run -- Lowe handling most of the work in Thailand, McCann covering Malaysia and BBH and M&C Saatchi sharing creative duties in Singapore.
The front-runners appear to be the smaller agencies, which have been awarded several assignments by Coke over the larger networks for the past two years, with indications that Coke is putting more emphasis on breakthrough ideas than reach and multi-disciplinary capabilities.
It is thought that Coke will test all the creative ideas submitted by the agencies and a final decision is not expected before August. Coca-Cola was unavailable for comment.