Shantanu Pandey
Marketing Initiative

How Coca-Cola Encouraged People to Celebrate This Diwali Together Through Their Innovative Campaign

Coca-Cola India rolled out a technological product innovation - a ‘locked’ Coke, a limited-edition beverage bottle for the festive season.

Remember those days of lights all around, firecrackers and unlimited sweets? Yes, the festival of lights, Diwali, but over time Diwali has lost slight of its magic owing to COVID and lockdowns and people avoiding travelling to meet in person. Also with the growing dependency on the internet and social media platforms over time, we have been inclined to connect through phone calls, WhatsApp messages or video calls being popular among these. Unarguably, this can never take over the feel and fun of meeting in person, giving a hug and saying Happy Diwali.

In light of this, kicking off the festive fervour in India, Coca-Cola India launched their truly special campaign #MilkeHiManegiDiwali, with a limited-edition Coke bottle in India equipped with a novel feature. The campaign urged its audience to travel the distance, no matter what it may be, and celebrate with their loved ones in person instead of with virtual wishes and greetings. – "Iss baar gale milke kaho Happy Diwali".

The idea behind the campaign was to get people to meet in person and bond over a refreshing bottle of Coca-Cola. A special gift bottle of Coca-cola with a locked bottlecap, that you could send your friends and family before Diwali. The key attraction among netizens was the bottle's lid. The ‘locked’ bottle was fitted with a special Bluetooth-enabled cap that will open only in the presence of the sender around you. The bottle sparked a discussion around the country since its release. The lock was designed to function as an invitation card and can only be opened when the bottle's sender and receiver meet in person. It was a unique and beautiful amalgamation of technology and creativity that encouraged people to make an effort to travel, meet in person, and celebrate a magical Diwali together. These were the limited edition of Coke bottles especially launched for the campaign period.

The whole process behind this was as simple as a Diwali hug. The sender could visit a website especially launched for the purpose and enters the recipient's address and details. The recipient receives a Locked Coke with a customised message printed on the bottlecap - "Yeh Coke sirf X ke saath khulega". And the interesting part is that the recipient cannot open the bottle alone.

When the recipient meets the sender in person, the sender can activate the Bluetooth on the phone using a microsite and press a button to unlock the coke.

The brand also roped in popular influencers to spread the word and encourage them to celebrate with their loved ones. Kusha Kapila, Barkha Singh, Mallika Dua, Zaid Darbaar, Jasleen Royal, Sanjana Sanghi, Ayush Mehra, Yuvika Chaudhary, Srishti Dixit and Karan Wahi were part of it.

To amplify it further and keep up with the modern time the brand launched a special Coca-cola AR filter around the theme. Gen Z has always been virtual, hence to tap on it, Coca-Cola enabled a Diwali Filter invitation to ensure we all celebrate together and in person with a unique invitation. Influencers also joined in to create a video using the AR Filter to record a Diwali invite for their friend and loved ones and post their authentic reactions on their social media channels.

Further, it got better with something called ‘Coke Log’. A series of quirky illustrated characters with a festive trope on the bottles, diverse and vibrant, these characters were the literal embodiments of Diwali. The brand also invited artists from all over the country to create their own ‘Coke Log’ using signature designs and the best of them featured on Coke’s official social media.

Coke also tied up with Glance to promote the message in the lock screen environment, where users could invite their dear ones, with a personalised invitation branded by Coca-Cola. Starting with the beautiful festive edition bottles flashing on millions of users’ lock screens enabling users to choose their language for the invitation, add the invitee’s name, a place to meet, and the sender’s name. These invitations were directly shared by users over WhatsApp, straight from their lock screens. The experience enabled Glance users to customise Coca-Cola branded Diwali invitations and encouraged them to enjoy Diwali celebrations together.

Have news to share? Write to us atnewsteam@afaqs.com