The Nigerian Coca Cola Open Happiness Campaign
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Campaign [noun]: an organized course of action to achieve a goal — Google
Some years ago, Coca Cola launched ‘The Open Happiness Campaign’. The idea, as always with Coca Cola, was to use the drink as an avenue to share happiness and connect with other people. The campaign was judged to be largely successful because of the impact it had on lots of people.
Welcome to Nigeria. The first time I got to know about the campaign was a billboard advert along the highway showing a guy handing a girl a bottle of Coke — the copy read ‘I am the crazy guy who shares a Coke with a stranger’. A few days later I saw another billboard advert. This one read ‘Be the silly one who helps a total stranger’. And there were many more Ads like that all over the city of Lagos… okay not exactly everywhere. I’m not sure if there was a TV Ad but that really doesn’t matter considering what I’m about to point out.
You see, unlike their international counterparts, Coca Cola Nigeria felt Advertisements was all there is to campaigns: it didn’t matter if it was on TV, Radio, Outdoor or the internet.
However, the 21st Century world has evolved beyond the age of one-way communications to bi-directional communications and experiential marketing.
When you say you’re running an ‘Open Happiness’ Campaign, the question is how does the campaign translate into happiness for the drinkers of Coke?
How many people are happy as a result of your campaign is the ultimate yardstick for judging the success of the campaign. Such a campaign can only be successful when people experience it; feel, taste, hear and immerse themselves in the total experience. For example, countries like the UK, USA and Australia had things like ‘Share a Coke’ and situations where the vintage Coca Cola logo was replaced with the names of individuals. Now, that’s what we call an experience — the happiness can be measured, so to speak.
So, was the ‘Open Happiness’ campaign in Nigeria a success? I’d say judging by the above criterion — No.
The End..
Update: A year later, Coca-Cola Nigeria ran the ‘Share A Coke’ campaign, which was a huge success judging by how much people went lengths to find their names on a bottle.
