Friendship Experiment
Coca-Cola
Issue 27 | June 2013
Agency
Ogilvy & Mather Shanghai
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer Graham Fink Executive Creative Directors Sean Sim Francis Wee Creative Director Golf Nuntawat Art Director Jasphine Chew Copywriter Sean Sim
Production Team
Photographer Kurt Tang Agency producer William Huen Production house Carrot Film Director William Dhawan Producer Steven Ng Offline production Studio Ark Shanghai Film Valley Shanghai Agency Digital Team Joseph Chan Nova Huang Shaoling Xu Shaoxing Li Angela Gu Leon Lee Hongye Hu
Other Credits
Account Managers Martin Murphy Oli Goulden Anita Beveridge PR Managers Fengmei Liang Xiufan Huang Qingxin Li Lisha Deng Yanyan Wu Client Richard Cotton
Date
March 2013
Background
China’s skyrocketing growth in recent years had led to mass migration to the big cities. As a result, people had become colder and more indifferent towards each other.
Coca-Cola wanted to bring a little happiness to the streets.
Idea
The idea was to show how complete strangers could become friends by asking a photographer to roam the streets, approaching different passers-by. He introduced the strangers to each other, got them to drink a bottle or two of Coke together to break the ice, then he got them to pose together.
The resulting photographs were published online as well as in an exhibition in a Shanghai art gallery.
Visitors to the website (www.friendshipexperiment.com) could watch and download videos of the encounters as they took place, seeing how complete strangers could look incredibly natural and at ease with each other within ten minutes of meeting. And the catalyst for the new friendship? Coca-Cola.
Results
By seeding the campaign idea with online and offline media, the ambition was to reach 5 million consumers. Thanks to the positive coverage, generating the equivalent to $1.4m in free media value, 13.5 million people saw the Friendship Experiment – a return on investment of 1,666% on a budget of $120,000.
Our Thoughts
I must declare an interest. I was in Ogilvy Shanghai when Sean Sim first had this idea and I loved it then and love it now.
I think it is a brilliantly branded idea, capitalising on Coke’s ‘friendship’ strategy in a new and most amiable way.
Watching the videos, when rewinding the footage shows how people who look to be friends, even lovers, met only minutes earlier is both extraordinary and touching.
The insight here is the role the drink plays in helping ‘break the ice’. Without sharing a Coke first, the guinea-pigs of the experiment simply would not, could not, have been able to relax with each other as they did. This campaign is a demonstration of the psychology of sharing and only Coca-Cola could have run it.