Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Coca-Cola Releases “Happiness Truck”


Coca-Cola, whose Happiness Machine video became a feel-good hit for the brand last year with 3 million views, is back with a sequel that offers more of an international flavor.

“Happiness Truck” takes place in Rio de Janeiro and is a twist on the original idea, which showed a Coke machine that spit out free Cokes, flowers, balloon animals, pizza and submarine sandwich at a college cafeteria. This time around, a special truck dispenses free Cokes as well as a beach toy, a surfboard, sunglasses, beach chairs, t-shirts and soccer balls. Coke is launching the video on its Facebook Page today.

In between the two videos, though, there have been some 40 others that took inspiration from the original “Happiness Machine,” says Shane Grant, global brand director for Coca-Cola. Grant says the brand chose Rio for this major project because “we wanted to show how happiness translates in markets around the world, not just the U.S. or Western Europe.” Grant says there are no plans to cut this video into a 30-second version and show it on TV in the U.S., as the company had with the “Happiness Machine” video.

Allen Adamson, managing director of Landor Associates, says “Happiness Machine” was “brilliant” and fits in well with the brand’s image. “It was an unexpected moment of joy and surprise around one of the most mundane touch points there is — a vending machine.” Adamson favorably compared the viral videos with Coke’s Super Bowl spots, which he said were good, but didn’t get the water cooler buzz of, say, VW’s “The Force.”

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