Coca-Cola reimagines Queen’s ‘A Kind of Magic’ to launch its global music platform

Coca-Cola is expanding Coke Studio, a music platform launched in Pakistan in 2008, to a global stage.

Pratik Thakar, global head of creative strategy at Coke, told Campaign: "We already have four amazing places where Coke Studio is successful. Now is the time when we take Coke Studio to a global level.

"With the platform we have in Pakistan we were always thinking, 'what's the right time?'. Coke has an amazing history in music and music partnerships. Music is a unifying force across the world. We had amazing synergy between brands and platforms and saw this as the right time to scale it up."

The global Coke Studio programme is digital-first and provides an opportunity for emerging talent to partner, create and deliver musical moments to new audiences.

To bring the platform to life Coca-Cola has released a global positioned film titled "The conductor" by BETC London featuring seven artists who have reimagined the iconic Queen track A Kind of Magic.

The artists include American R&B star Ari Lennox; British singer-songwriter Griff; Turkish electro-pop producer Ekin Beril; Latin urban pop artist Mariah Angeliq; Nigerian singer-songwriter and producer Tems; Canadian-Indian rapper and producer Tesher; and multi-lingual K-Pop girl band TRI.BE.

In the two-minute film directed by Pierre Dupaquier through Iconoclast, each artist is able to bring their own unique style to the music.

It was important for Coca-Cola to support artists who were successful locally but could benefit from its global presence to expose them to new audiences.

Joshua Burke, global head of music and culture marketing for The Coca-Cola Company, said: "All of the artists are at a very crucial stage in their career, where they're not up and coming artists, but they're also not yet global superstars.

"They're what we're calling breakthrough artists at the tipping point of going from being very locally relevant to being global. We thought that we could use our platform of Coke Studio global not only to bring these artists together, and to cross-pollinate fandoms and communities, but also to provide a global stage for these artists to help their music expand across borders and across regions in a way that is unique and very new. And we're very excited about it."

In addition to the film, each artist has recorded their own version of A Kind of Magic which, together with exclusive tracks and behind-the-scenes footage, will be accessible on the Coke Studio YouTube Hub.

Content can also be unlocked through on-pack activation "Drink. Scan. Enjoy", which sees packs of Coca-Cola turned into digital portals: a gateway for people to connect with the new global Coke Studio content.

Coke Studio also plans to host multiple live events and pop-up concerts. 

The launch of Coke Studio and "The conductor" has been curated in partnership with Universal Music Group.