Every year around 200.000 Muslims celebrate Ramadan in Norway – the holy month of fasting where Muslims don't eat or drink from sunrise to sunset. Research shows that 34,1 percent of the population in Norway have prejudice towards Muslims. Additionally the differences between Norwegian Muslims and other Norwegians become even more visible throughout the month of Ramadan. Furthermore, because Norway is so far north that it's difficult to fast here, this was also an opportunity for Coca-Cola to fill the month with joy by being considerate in their advertising.Coca-Cola wanted to contribute to a greater understanding of what Ramadan is about and what it means for Muslims, break down the barriers between the different cultures in Norway, and reduce prejudice towards Muslims - trough engaging people across cultural divides. And so we launched the Ramadan campaign in Norway – the first for Coca-Cola, and maybe even in the entire West.

Ramadan can be extra challenging in Norway where the sun rises early and sets late and temptations are everywhere. We launched digital ads and a vending machine that were fasting from sunrise until sunset. When the sun set, the products reappeared – to join Iftar, the evening meal.

The target audience for this campaign was youth between 16-34 years old (both muslims and non-muslims), which is around 1337890 people in Norway. We wanted to demonstrate cultural leadership through a tangible act of purpose, and deliver this act of purpose through the context of “kos” (the unique Norwegian occasion). In addition our aim was to increase corporate approval score, and increase brand love score. We wanted to get the target group to love Coca-Cola even more by seeing/experiencing that Coca-Cola is celebrating the beauty of diversity and overcoming divides through using Ramadan to bridge the divides in the Norwegian society. By showing the "kos"(which is a distinctly unique Norwegian word/occasion, closely related to "joy" and the danish "hygge") in Ramadan we showed Norwegians that also other holidays share this distinctly Norwegian occasion, and by removing the products during from the ads, we removed temptations for those who where fasting.

The first week of the campaign was started off through a simple Facebook post where we changed the Coca-Cola logo to the one they use in Muslim countries during Ramadan, in order to create attention. We followed up with muslim influencers sharing their story about Ramadan on Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat, in order to further drive purpose. Then we launched the fasting ads in order to create even more talkability and drive our purpose across Metros, Shopping Centers, and other premium out of home placements. Additionally we set up a fasting vending machine at Oslo Central Station, only operational after sunset, in order to drive even more engagement to create understanding and inclusiveness. We rounded off the entire campaign by inviting in to a joint iftar celebration at Høymagasinet in Oslo. There we had invited influencers, politicians, partners, and other key stakeholders of Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola's corporate reputation in Norway went up 3.7 ppt during Ramadan. In addition, the subcategories "Company I trust" went up 23%, "Company that always responsible" up 20.5% and "Favorability" up 5%. Social media figures show that engagement rates* are well over double Coca-Cola's benchmark on campaigns and five times higher than Carat's benchmark! (*engagement rate is reactions, shares, comments and postings, and number of impressions).

In total, the digital content and ads were shown 6,187,033 times to 917,725 unique users on digital platforms.

Additionally the campaign was well documented in earned media. World media in Russia and Pakistan wrote about the campaign, and was also covered in major publications in Norwegian media such as TV2 and Dagbladet. Additionally the international fact-checking website snopes.com. wrote an article about the campaign.