In 2022, Sprite wanted to break through the April Fool’s Day conversation on social media. On a day when many brands are activating and willing to spend considerable dollars, this seemed easier said than done—especially with zero influencer, production or media budget. Fortunately, Sprite had something to tap into that it had never explored before.

Since 2017, superfans have noticed a difference in the taste of Sprite at McDonald’s compared to anywhere else. Its crispy, more fizzy flavor led to people calling it “Spicy Sprite,” which naturally became a conversation topic, particularly on Twitter.

By tapping into these organic Spicy Sprite conversations, the brand aimed to acknowledge its superfans and validate their cultural contribution. Although there were no influencers contracted to amplify this content, Sprite’s relevance in pop culture enabled the brand’s message to be shared organically by influential social media accounts, driving additional reach without any official partnerships.

While Spicy Sprite is something that became a trending topic on social with countless memes and comments around it, it was still something that could only be enjoyed by going to McDonald’s. But what if people could get a taste of Spicy Sprite from the comfort of their own home?

Sprite decided it was time to unveil “Spicy Sprite in a can” and officially recognize Spicy Sprite within the brand’s lineup of flavors. Although it was merely an April Fool’s joke, by having a firm understanding of its social audience, Sprite anticipated that the announcement of this “new product innovation” would lead to a groundswell of commotion and excitement—and it did.

Since we didn’t have any paid media for this idea, we relied on earned media in order to drive awareness and engagement. And we needed to be creative and strategic with how we rolled the idea out in order to maximize earned attention. We started by executing the idea on our own social channels and then leveraged Sprite’s brand relationships to get more visibility, most notably McDonald’s and its 4.7M Twitter followers. We also tapped other brands within Coca-Cola’s portfolio to join the conversation and extend our reach organically. Once the idea took off, the national and international press coverage we received became our media, and all of it was free.

On April 1, 2022, Sprite’s response to April Fool’s Day came in the form of a single tweet featuring a static image of a “Spicy Sprite” can bearing the McDonald’s Golden Arches on the front. Along with a simple headline, “It hits different,” the brand announced its release of Spicy Sprite in a can, declaring that it had finally figured out the secret behind what makes the drink at McDonald’s so unique.

Sprite then monitored the responses to its Spicy Sprite tweet, reacting in real-time to the most engaging comments and retweets. This increased content visibility, and also gave Sprite fans more reasons to join in the excitement. By creating a unique, yet easily recognizable visual of the supposed product, Sprite quickly drew the attention of many, including highly popular influencer accounts such as @daquan and @worldstar, as well as press coverage from outlets including Highsnobiety and The Drum.

Sprite’s April Fool’s Day tweet took off immediately, receiving 4 billion impressions, with ~35M organic impressions and 3.3M press impressions, and nearly 800,000 engagements on Twitter. This was all thanks to Sprite’s efforts in building community and specifically recognizing Black Twitter in a way that was simple, impactful, and made its fans feel seen. Additionally, the single tweet drove an increase in Sprite’s positive consumer sentiment 23% higher than average, with 2X the daily average in conversation over 3 days. It was also picked up by media outlets such as Highsnobiety and The Drum, as well as popular social media meme accounts including @worldstar and @daquan. Ultimately, the Spicy Sprite tweet became the #1 top-performing organic social post to ever come from any brand at The Coca-Cola Company.