Coca-Cola Friendly Twist—Open a Coke, Open a New Friendship

It is always hard to start a conversation with a stranger, especially in an era that everyone looks at their mobile devices. Coca-Cola launched a campaign called “Coca-Cola Friendly Twist” in May, 2014 and it achieved great success.

College freshmen feel excited to start their campus life. However, it is difficult for them to break the ice and initiate a conversation with their fellow freshmen. Coca-Cola came up with a great idea to solve this problem. By designing a special cap which can only be opened by a matching top, student have to cooperate with each other before enjoying the ice-cold beverage. It seems that it is not that difficult to build up a connection and a friendship with this “excuse”.

This campaign was launched at a perfect time when a new semester begins, and statistics show that most people are in favor of this idea. This campaign has been viewed for 8,608,286 times on YouTube so far and 29,553 people liked this video. It received countless share and positive comments on Facebook and while searching the hashtag #FriendlyTwist on Twitter, you can find people continuously share their love for this campaign and their admiration to Coca-Cola’s effort in helping students to connect to each other.

The brand ideal of Coca-Cola is sharing the moment of happiness. Therefore, this ad is in accordance with its brand’s core value. Moreover, this campaign is fun and innovative, which easily grabs young people’s attention. Last but not least, it takes good advantage of all kinds of social media platforms, so that customers can get involved and share their thoughts about this campaign. Personally I like this campaign a lot because for one thing, it is heart-warming, and for another, it is thought-provoking which lets me pay more attention to personal communication.

Undoubtedly, the improvement of technology makes our lives more convenient and we no longer heavily rely on personal communication to exchange ideas. Nevertheless, this campaign reminds us that sometimes we should get rid of our mobile devices and bravely start a conversation with the people around us.

Discussion questions:

1. How do you like this campaign and why?

2. Is there any drawbacks of this campaign? If so, what improvements can Coca-Cola Company make?

References:

Staff, J (2014, August 12). “Friendly Twist”: Watch college freshmen bond over unique coke bottles. Retrieved from: http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/friendly-twist-watch-college-freshmen-bond-over-unique-coke-bottles

Chohan, T. (2014, Sepember 16). Why students love Coca-Cola’s “Friendly Twist” campaign. Retrieved from: http://www.marketingtechnews.net/news/2014/sep/16/why-students-love-coca-colas-friendly-twist-marketing-campaign/