Fanta: LESS SERIOUS AWARDS

Credits & Description:

Category: Best Use of Social Media Marketing

Advertiser: COCA-COLA

Product/Service: FANTA

Date of First Appearance: Jul 19 2010

Entrant Company: STARCOM ITALIA, Milan, ITALY

Entry URL: http://www.youtube.com/user/italyfanta?blend=1&ob=5

Research & Development/Strategy Director: Alessio Fattore (Starcom)

Media Central and Southern Europe: Barbara Sala (Coca-Cola)

Digital Central and Southern Europe: Andrea Airoldi (Coca-Cola)

YouTube: YuoTube (YouTube)

Media placement: Digital - Branded YouTube Channel And A/V Display - 19 July 2010

Media placement: Out Of Home - YouTube Content Streaming Live On The Streets - 1 September 2010



Insights, Strategy & the Idea

FANTA is the second largest soft drink in Italy but is declining on its core Teens target. To fight this, the brand is positioned around 'playfulness' with a vision of creating 'More Play in the world'. We worked against two insights; teens are rabid consumers of online and in particular the fruition and sharing of funny videos, and they are always on the go with friends. The strategy was to leverage these insights partnering with the top global video site, YouTube, and create an interactive 'award' platform that engaged teens encouraging them to create, share and vote on the top 'less serious' videos. This was housed in a dedicated YouTube brand channel, and then amplified in the real world through packaging (first time a web site was featured on the cans of a COCA-COLA brand), and a media first where maxi-outdoor sites showed the channel on street-level in streaming real-time.



Creative Execution

The initiative had two phases: recruitment and voting + uploading. Recruitment phase consisted of a viral marketing campaign aimed to collect 150 funny videos in five categories: Less Serious Jump, Sport, Artist, Animal, and Water Performance. The videos were all uploaded on FANTA’s YouTube brand channel. The second phase allowed YouTube’s users to watch the videos and express their preference through a laugh video (uploaded by them or picked from a 'laugh gallery'). Teens could then watch the uploaded laughs, and share the content (laughs and/or videos) on main social networks. The initiative had no prizes - users were driven by the desire of having fun. The brand channel was then amplified through the recall on FANTA cans and the outdoor presence in one of the top youth areas of Milan. The outdoor reproduced the brand channel layout with video streaming 24/7, bringing the internet in effect to the streets.



Results and Effectiveness

1.8 million users viewed the FANTA channel on YouTube. It was the 7th largest channel ever in terms of numbers of subscribers, and the largest ever in terms of branded channels. Over 112,000 users voted for at least one video. 15 million cans were distributed with the YouTube logo.