Coca-Cola’s expedition to discover happiness started the same time Coke won the hearts of its first consumers. With almost every new promotional piece the iconic fuzzy drink brand is pursuing the goal to uncover a secret formula of happiness—Coca-Cola has already introduced the Happiness Machine and Truck, released a range of applications and surveys related to the theme and launched the hilarious Happiness Factory series to name but a few. The brand has already gained impressive experience of delivering positive emotions to millions of its consumers and it has come again to share some of its secrets. On September 16, Coca-Cola released a new 6 min 30 sec musical film dubbed ‘The Great Happyfication,’ a new installation of the Emmy- & TIME-nominated worldwide series of vibrant and a bit odd animated ads, which are all about discovering the world of Coke and the ways Coca-Cola makes people happy.
The new spot, which was created by the Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam advertising agency (they developed the concept in 2007), animation and design studio Psyop and music company Human, premiered at the World of Coca-Cola attraction in Atlanta in June and was officially presented to the whole world last Friday on the brand’s Facebook fan page and YouTube channel. “Coke doesn’t want to keep all of its formulas a secret. In fact, when it comes to how to be happy, the brand is more than ready to sing from the rooftops about it. We created The Great Happyfication as a musical celebration of the tenets of happiness, and we hope people feel good just from watching it,” commented Mark Bernath, Executive Creative Director at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam.
The ad takes audience to the exciting world of Coca-Cola and explains how the legendary drink is made—still it keeps the most important formula under wraps. Guided by an animated narrator Pete, a blue lizard without a tale, and cheerleader Wendy, a weird imaginative creature, the audience can follow a bottle of Coke as it moves from a distillery to a consumer. A trio of chick penguins, creepy kissy puppies with huge lips as well as a mortar man help the narrators make the story as illustrative as possible. So far, the spot, “a rollicking six-minute anthem that distills the secrets of happiness into five toe-tapping lessons,” has been viewed over 80,000 times, but since there are 34 million Coca-Cola’s Facebook fans, the number of views is sure to grow.
“The brief was huge. We wanted to make the happiest 6 and a half minutes in film. No half measures. We also wanted to get the world singing the Coca-Cola 5 notes. In truth the work just keeps on getting better and better. Rather like drinking a bottle of ice cold Coke, you just never want it to end,” continues Jonathan Mildenhall, VP Global Advertising Strategy & Content Excellence of Coca-Cola.
One of the characters, which help the brand spread happiness, is the Coca-Cola Polar Bear. Coca-Cola is now asking its fans to vote for the Coke’s X-mas icon, which is competing with other advertising mascots (Old Spice’s Man Your Man Could Smell Like and Energizer Bunny are among them) to get displayed on The Madison Avenue Advertising Walk of Fame.