Coca-Cola’s Happiness Machine

by Justin Levy on January 20, 2010

Imagine if you walked up to a vending machine, dropped in a couple dollars, made your selection and a soda popped out.  Seems completely normal, right?  Now, what if another soda came out. Possibly the computer on the fritz but kinda cool, huh?  But, what if it kept spitting out soda after soda, started pouring the soda for you into a glass, gave you some flowers and a pizza?  Think that would cause a group of people to gather ’round the vending machine?  Of course it would.  Now, what if that was all captured on video and shared online.  High chance of going viral? Yep.

Well, that is exactly what Coca-Cola has done as part of their “Open Happiness” global marketing campaign.

As MediaPost explains:

Coke set up a special vending machine on a real college campus and rolled footage of students’ surprised and delighted reactions as the machine proceeded to dispense everything from free bottles of Coke to flowers, a whole pizza, a six-foot sub and balloon animals.

Coke couldn’t have scripted better responses: Students laugh and jump, pass the Cokes and gifts around, and even thank Coke as they hug the vending machine. But the footage is “all real students and real reactions,” according to Christy Amador, digital marketing manager, Coca-Cola global interactive marketing.

The video is the first video that Coca-Cola has released that was created solely for digital distribution without use in TV ads.  Want to know if it was a success for Coca-Cola?  Well, in the week since the video has gone live on YouTube, it has received over 700,000+ views.

Without further ado, here is the hilarious video from St. John’s University.  If you can’t view this video, head over to YouTube.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqT_dPApj9U[/youtube]

Coca-Cola has been garnering a lot of applause from the social media community as of late, first, with the release of their 3 page social media policy and now with this.

Do you like the concept?  How could other brands learn from what Coca-Cola has been doing?

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  • melissaleon
    Love this video, what a great idea! I have enjoyed seeing how Coke continues to embrace and understand social media. It will be interesting to see how advertising continues to grow in social media.
  • It will definitely be interesting to see how the two worlds continue to
    collide!
  • I think this kind of advertising should be categorized under a "daily dose of happiness"! It ties in well with other "hidden camera" videos making their way around the web now, like the improvisational dancing in train stations and flash mobs at museums. Coke has really tapped into an audience that just wants to smile.

    Brands could definitely learn from this. Advertising doesn't have to be expensive or elaborate - and sometimes, the most successful and memorable executions just make people smile.
  • Absolutely! Actually, some of the most expensive projects are the ones that
    are ridiculed by the community. While extravagant, multi-million dollar
    commercials may do well on television, they don't tend to translate well to
    the online world. Granted, some commercials do go viral but that's because,
    as Tim Street would say, they elicite emotion from us.
  • I caught this video last night Justin and I must say, I was super impressed by Coke's advertising! Coke responded back to me on Twitter and said they'll do their best to keep more ads like this coming ;-) Goes further to show that they actually "get" social media.

    What other brands could learn is to make things fun and interesting, not dull and boring. Create advertising and marketing campaigns that get people to think and then when they talk about you, engage and interact with them when you can.
  • Coke is definitely out there listening and responding. Shortly after I
    posted this, a conversation started on Twitter between myself and a couple
    others. Within minutes Coke had jumped into the conversation.
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