Cannes Lions

This Coca-Cola Campaign Can Be Read Only by Color-Blind People

ESSENCIUS A/S, Copenhagen / COCA-COLA / 2016

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Overview

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Credits

OVERVIEW

Description

The basic idea came from Coca-Cola’s colour universe. Coca-Cola is usually associated with the iconic red colour, but the colour of green is added to the Coca-Cola universe with the green-labelled Coca-Cola life.

We found out that some people have had difficulties distinguishing the red-labelled Coca-Cola regular from other Coca-Cola drinks that are also red-labelled, such as Coca-Cola vanilla. But the green-labelled Coca-Cola life really looks different, and therefore it is quite easy to distinguish it from the red-labelled Coca-Cola products. However, we realised that it may still be difficult to distinguish between them for people that are red-green colour-blind. If you are colour-blind, you cannot see the difference.

Based on this, we came up with the idea of making a campaign that favours colour-blind people and turns everyone else colour-blind instead. In doing so, we would engage many by targeting the few.

Execution

We managed to create reversed Ishihara images, in which we nestled the word life in the design so colour-blind people became the first to know about the launch of Coca-Cola life, leaving everyone else wondering. The Ishihara images were also great because their dots look like bubbles from a refreshing Coca-Cola drink. In that way, the campaign was based on the Coca-Cola bubbles not only in its main theme but also visually.

The result was a comprehensive, integrated product launch campaign, activated through bloggers, social media, outdoor at Copenhagen Town Hall Square and at sampling events in some of Denmark’s biggest department stores. The campaign consisted of a teaser campaign leading up to the official product launch. In the teaser campaign, the Ishihara images with the hidden message played the key role in order to make people curious before the product was officially launched.

Outcome

Although the campaign period was limited to only 10 days, the results were impressive. People engaged in discussions about the hidden message, and we succeeded in engaging not only the colour-blind people but an impressing amount people with normal vision as well.

In Denmark, we reached an earned audience of more than 12 million (pop. 5.6 million) through PR and social media. On Facebook, which was central to engaging the core target group, we reached close to 900,000, equivalent to 27 % of the total number of Danish Facebook users.

Our Video News Release got more than 192,000 views, and major news media such as Adweek, Time and Fortune also picked up the campaign. This resulted in an additional earned audience through PR and social of more than 100 million globally. Furthermore, the campaign had cross-cultural appeal, as it travelled to countries as far away as Thailand, Vietnam and Australia.

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