Coca-Cola releases “Emotican” in Vietnam

Client: Coca-Cola Company

Agency: Happiness Saigon

Market: Vietnam

Name of campaign: Coca-Cola Undercover Delivery

Campaign scope: Online

Press release comments:

Coca-Cola released the “Emotican”, a series of emotions or feelings expressed through an emoticon on the red Coca-Cola can.

Last Thursday Coca-Cola published its latest initiative to claim cultural leadership in Vietnam within the “Share a Coke. Share a feeling” campaign in order to remove barriers Vietnamese face from expressing feelings to loved ones.

Coca-Cola does this through the video of an “Undercover delivery” stunt.

How did the stunt work? First Coca-Cola spotted three messengers, a father, a son, a boy in love and their unique stories after a round of street casting. The three stories were captured revealing the true message they want to deliver to their loved ones.

Next the stunt was organized with a total of 10 cameras including go-pro’s filming the delivery of the message at the receiver’s homes handed out by a delivery person.

All the while the real messengers witnessed the delivery, hiding nearby, undercover, hearing the entire conversation through an earpiece before going to their loved ones when the emotions were at the highest point.

The Undercover Delivery stunt was developed by Happiness Saigon and first launched on Thursday 13/08 on Facebook, YouTube and Zing TV. Since the launch the stunt has reached more than 3.9 million views combined.

Its success indicates that Happiness & Coca-Cola have truly touched a human truth in Vietnam. And it showed once that Coca-Cola is a brand that unlocks happiness.

Campaign Asia-Pacific’s comments:  The use of  "candid footage" as a storytelling device is pretty overdone in advertising these days, yet it can be a reliable and convenient means of achieving an effect—usually an outpouring of emotion that ties back to brand.

Driven by the 'authenticity' zeitgeist and online video formats of the day, there's a long list of brands that have used this approach. Believabilty,  poignancy of the actual story, and a strong brand link can either make or break this kind of storytelling. What do you think about this video? 
 

CREDITS:

Client: Coca-Cola Vietnam
Regional marketing manager: Uyen Pham
Head of integrated marketing communication: Binh Le
Head of content: Giang Tran
Agency: Happiness Saigon
CEO: Alan Cerutti
Chief creative officer: Geoffrey Hantson
Creative director: Paul Busschau
Concept provider / copywriter: Tim Schoenmaeckers & Niels Sienaert
Client lead: Tran Quan
Account manager: Tu Nguyen
Copywriter: Tong Nguyen
Producer: Khue Bui
Director: Tsering Tashi Gyalthang
Production: Yeti Films