Coca-Cola collaborated with artist NewJeans to produce branded content for their 2023 Coke Zero campaign. To solidify No.1 position in zero-sugar drink market, Coca-Cola Korea used the Korean nursery rhyme "Coca-Cola Massita," combined with the retro aesthetic that is one of the core identities of NewJeans.

The campaign featured music, a music video, a performance video and short-form contents, all designed to mimic the way NewJeans interact with their fans. This campaign holds significant importance in the current era where advertising effectiveness is declining. It communicates with consumers in a new and innovative way, re-engineering the success formula of NewJeans.

After launching in 1968, Coca-Cola has maintained its No.1 position in Korea. Additionally, since introducing Coke Zero in 2006, Coca-Cola has dominated 90% of Korea's zero-sugar soft drink market. However, in 2021, the demand for zero-calorie beverages with alternative sweeteners grew significantly due to increased health awareness among Koreans.

Coca-Cola's market share in the zero-sugar market declined due to its product philosophy. Unlike its competitors who launched various flavored beverages and established the perception of tastiness, Coca-Cola focused solely on the original taste without any added flavors, failing to attract customers who preferred more options.

The main objective of the client's brief was to reinforce Coke Zero's identity and regain its position as the leader in taste.

Through this campaign, we proposed strategies to enhance brand preference and brand reminders, aiming to extend product trials. We firmly believed that increasing product trials would inevitably result in repeated purchases.

In Korea, there is a well-known children's song called "Coca-Cola Massita", which translates into English as "Coca-Cola is Tasty". This song began as a nursery rhyme without any involvement from the brand, and its exact origins are still unclear. As a nursery rhyme, the lyrics that come after "Coca-Cola is tasty, if it's tasty, drink it again" may differ depending on the region. This song was typically used during childhood when playing with friends and making decisions, and has become a beloved part of Korean play culture.

Consumers have long recognized the original Coca-Cola as the foundation of the taste and a clear leader in the soft drink market. Meanwhile, Coke Zero was criticized for lacking the same taste as the original Coca-Cola. Despite Coke Zero's efforts to improve its taste and get closer to the original, negative perceptions persist among consumers.

Through the campaign, we aimed to rebuild taste appeal and desire by removing the prejudice against Coke Zero’s taste and securing leadership in taste. Based on consumers' existing perception that "Coca-Cola Original has an edge in taste," we tried to transfer this positive perception to the Coke Zero’s taste by re-activating the message "Coca-Cola (brand) is tasty".

So, we used a Korean nursery rhyme, starting with "Coca-Cola is tasty, if it's tasty, drink it more,". Through collaboration with NewJeans, we tried to remind people of the song’s rhyme, and strengthened positive awareness of Coca-Cola's products.

We proposed a campaign to distribute the CM song that features the nursery rhyme, “Coca-Cola is tasty,” to a wider audience. For this campaign, we chose NewJeans as our model because they are supported by various age groups, including our core targets, which are people in their 20s and 30s. NewJeans is known for creating a unique style of music that is different from traditional K-pop and for introducing innovative grammar structures since their debut. We believed that the Korean nursery rhyme reinterpreted and sung by NewJeans would give the campaign a young and sophisticated image. Based on NewJeans’ artist power, we expected that many user-created contents would be released, making our campaign more powerful.

To promote our song, we used the same marketing methods as K-pop idols when they launch their new albums. We focused on content production and first released our music on various streaming platforms, including Spotify. After that, we released the official music video on NewJeans' YouTube channel, followed by performance videos and dance challenge videos on social media platforms to help spread the song.

Furthermore, we followed a two-track strategy to ensure that we didn't deviate from the established Coca-Cola brand advertising formula. We created Coke Zero-focused advertisements and utilized paid media, such as television spots, outdoor billboards, bus shelters, and taxi exteriors.

Coca-Cola has established new ways of connecting with consumers by incorporating entertainment as a vital element.

After the release of the "Zero" music video, people started uploading various content related to the song, including reviews, lyrics videos, and dance challenges. It's noteworthy that over 30,000 organic contents were created, and people consumed the song for social media challenges. As a result, the song quickly rose to the top of various music charts and the music video achieved No.1 spot on YouTube's trending list just one day after being uploaded. The video has now been viewed over 19.2 million times on YouTube.

And the change in consumer behavior was shown through sales and brand perception data. In the second quarter of 2023, Coca-Cola experienced a 26% increase in sales compared to the previous quarter. The amount of positive word mentions related to Coca-Cola increased by 232%.