We wanted to create custom cans for as many people in the U.S. as possible. This required a large tour with durable, custom infrastructure including interactive vending machines and transit advertising. To do that required innovation and unprecedented technology for the market, on a scale not seen before. This was a limited-time promotion designed to lift sales and raise brand love during the summer.

Beginning in 2011, the original Share a Coke global campaign put common names on bottles for consumers to find and share socially. Our challenge was to take this already successful campaign and make it work for the name-diverse United States. So we created a tour that let people put any name on a can. The original campaign was great if your name was John or Meghan, but not if it was Cheokee or Tiki.

We also wanted to increase social and real sharing. So we let people create two personalized cans — one for themselves and one for a friend.

The Share a Coke tour delivered 1,157,803 personalized Share a Coke cans. During the 500+ stops of the tour, over 298,000 samples of Coca-Cola products (Coca-Cola, Coke Zero and Diet Coke) were distributed to our target audience. Overall, more than 2.4 million real life impressions were earned on site.

Content that was shared to social media from our events added to the popularity of the campaign and contributed to an integrated effort that drove buzz volume of nearly 700,000 posts.

And while we cannot attribute it solely to the success of the experiential portion, the brand enjoyed a 2% lift during the promotional window — a significant feat considering category trends and the enormous base volume of the brand

19 Share a Coke teams activated across the U.S. for 10 weeks during the summer. The tour schedule was posted on ShareaCoke.com while host locations spread the word via their social channels, flyers and paid media. There was also ample earned media on TV, radio and newspaper.

From Los Angeles to Maine to Miami, tour vehicles hit the road with messaging like “Follow me to get your name on a Coke” as rolling billboards.

Activations included promotional branded signage and call-to-action messaging to get your personalized can of Coke. Brand Ambassadors were always present to inform and excite crowds while they waited in line. Guests even enjoyed music and refreshing samples of Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and/or Coke Zero from Brand Ambassadors.

The plan was executed as developed with the exception of additional stops being added to satisfy demand.