The median age of consumers who drink soda weekly+ has increased 6+ years over the past 20 years. For Gen Xers, Millennials, and everyone before them, the soft drink industry was known for its ongoing “Soda War”, a never-ending dispute for market share between Pepsi and Coca-Cola’s core brand flavors. But as new options started to emerge, this war began to fade into the background, and Gen Z’s investment in either side was tenuous.

To earn their attention, and do it correctly, we had to tap into their most important passion point: Gaming. And so Coca-Cola Byte was born, an LTO flavor that let gamers taste the pixel.

Byte's objectives were driving penetration and increasing the number of young, core Coca-Cola weekly+ drinkers. Markers for success included:

-Earned media impressions

-Increased net sentiment compared to other Coke campaigns

-Driving organic consumer search

-Driving organic social media mentions among Gen Z

Coca-Cola Creations revolves around promoting the magic of human connection between Gen Z. Gaming is a space that Gen Z overwhelmingly uses to make new friends and keep up with old ones. So the task at hand became how we could provide value to the community while offering them a new way to connect over a Coke.

The answer became Coca-Cola Byte, the first Coke born in a video game.

We challenged people to come together through gaming by creating a Coca-Cola Byte-inspired map in Fortnite, one of the most popular games in the world. Then we partnered with top gaming influencers to stream a synchronized unboxing of Byte in the map and in real life, inspiring people to discover what pixels taste like.

Everyone was effected by the pandemic, but the consequences of isolation hit Gen Z the hardest: 46% of Gen Zers across the globe said their mental health had worsened, and 65% said they were feeling lonely—more than any other generation.

This global issue led to a clear tension with the generation, interrupting the most important social moments in their lives, their teenage years. And gaming became the solution.

The time at home led to 23% of additional time playing, and 63% of them were playing with others or getting support from the gaming community. Gaming was already their favorite pastime, but now it had become their own campfire: a place to hang out, connect, fall in love, and share who they really are.

Strategically the campaign pushed invite Gen Zers to play more and connect through gaming with Coke as an uplifting ally.

In our effort to reach gamers, we created Coca-Cola Byte—the first Coke born in a video game. Instead of a traditional product launch, we introduced it in a custom map created in Fortnite that we crafted in partnership with PWR, a group of iconic gamers and streamers whose maps have generated over 250+ million plays.

First, PWR streamed the map on Twitch to their fanbase. Then, after it was introduced in-game, influencer boxes were sent out to Gen Z icons and gamers, revealing the physical product on social and inviting more players to discover what a pixel tastes like. Even Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard got in on the fun.

Byte celebrated every aspect of gaming, from its unique pixel design, to the map created in Fortnite, down to an AR mini-game on the can itself.

The campaign was incredibly effective for Gen Z gamers, creating so much hype and anticipation that 38% of North America product was sold on launch day, and 65% was gone by the end of the first week. Coca-Cola Byte became the must-have Coke, selling out completely in the US.

In fact, Byte’s total sales in the US outperformed the Coke Store’s entire sales revenue by 40% in one month, and the conversion rate during launch day reached 14%

We earned 866 million impressions in the U.S. alone, with 178 million of them coming from gaming-focused media

Across LATAM, the campaign surpassed all the region's norms in terms of teen engagement, brand affinity, and awareness

In Fortnite, weekly players were +177% above PWR's benchmark, and spent 25% more time playing the map. The map attracted ~100k players by the end of the campaign.

Lastly, the campaign scored 98.5% favorable sentiment among a Gen Z gaming