The Remarkable Origin Story of “Share a Coke”

Who Here Wants to Work Through Winter Break?

It was a cold Manhattan afternoon in 2009, and I was working at 360i, in the then-new ‘Emerging Media Department’. It was the week before winter break, and as the new guy I was quietly working away in a near-empty office, since almost everyone senior to me (read: everyone) had already left our flatiron HQ.

My future business partner and then VP of Strategy, Gavin Blawie, burst out of his office and asked loudly, “Does anyone here know anything about the Simpsons??”

I raised my hand and said ‘I know everything about the Simpsons’. (This was, at the time, true. Sadly, I’ve not kept up with the latest antics of America’s #1 cartoon family).

‘Get in here’, he said.

D’Oh! Coke Celebrates 25 Years of The Simpsons

Turns out Coca-Cola had a big new partnership with The Simpsons, who were about to mark 25 years since their debut. Coke’s ask of their new Social AOR (agency of record) was to help support their new Super Bowl TV campaign, and they needed a quick-turn social plan, with Facebook as the flagship platform. The “Big Game” was less than 6 weeks away, and in addition to the new ad, there was a new, urgent expectation to help Coke break through and drive more conversation and engagement around the new Simpsons commercial extravaganza.

Gavin and I brainstormed for hours, working off a rough concept of the ad entitled “Hard Times”. Our brief was pretty simple: “Monty Burns Loses His Fortune.” After a few thrilling, late nights brainstorming and strategizing, we emerged with half a dozen “Coca-Cola in a Simpsons World” concepts. Coca-Cola’s brand positioning was as ​​an icon of happiness, and an antidote to modern day woes, so they wanted to ensure they were pushing deeper into the social space that was scaling in very real-time. The brand famously embraced a Fan Page created outside their company as their official flagship platform, which was at the time the biggest brand on Facebook. As their first social AOR, we were excited to help them craft a remarkable program.

A Big Game Ad Isn’t Necessarily A Big Idea In Social

While we had many meetings with Coca-Cola over the holiday break, the distilled idea that eventually came together was (thankfully) very simple: Coke and The Simpsons making a big new ad was an exciting partnership, but as social wasn’t a brand-led environment, to drive success in the new, exploding Facebook brand community, we would offer an exclusive incentive: an unlock of the Big Game ad linked to Sharing a Coke virtual gift. Despite what many have since taken credit for, this was in fact the first time ‘Share a Coke’ appeared in the brand’s marketing.

“Share a Coke”, see a Preview of the Big Game Ad

The simple insight and goal of our social program, which remains true to this day, was to get Facebook fans and followers to share through Coke, drive awareness for long standing partner Boys and Girls Club of America, and earn a Big Game preview. The simple act of peer-to-peer exchange, of a branded ‘unlock’, was a big deal back when most brands wouldn’t dare share their expensive Super Bowl ad prior to broadcast. The idea that sharing a Coke, albeit virtual, could be a moment between friends, and that that moment could unlock a matched donation, became focal. The brand’s “Big Game” ad was the big news to share, but because we were playing to the community first, that preview would serve as backdrop to a shared, community & cause experience.

This all sounds pretty commonplace if not obvious today, but remember, this was 12 years ago — the era of MySpace, when Friendster was still a go-to social platform, even before the ubiquitous Facebook ‘Like’ button. In 2009, conversational marketing had not yet become the norm. Back then, brands still mostly talked at consumers, vs joining and inspiring brand conversation.

The Birth of Virtual Brand Gifting

Because all this development happened with flagship Coca-Cola and a still emerging, pre-IPO Facebook, we worked extremely closely with the client and agency partners as well as the platform’s own engineers and product team. Facebook showed uncharacteristic ease, working to code a new back-end technology, customized for Big Red (a product that came to be known as Virtual Brand Gifting). And why wouldn’t Coke, the #1 brand in the world, not be first on Facebook to offer such an innovation? Back then, compared to the platform now, it’s striking how available and amenable Facebook was in customizing it’s UX. Rarned organic media was in its heyday, and the platform embraced and implemented new functionality to support the brand experience. As social point agency, we were pushing back the horizon of brand sharing on social, linking broadcast to social strategy, programming across the marketing mix for Coke, The Simpsons on Facebook, and across social, all in support of the new campaign.

Over a decade later, as Super Bowl LVI approaches, a few things about marketing across broadcast and social have changed. Most big brand commercials can be viewed online, well before game day. Every major (and minor) brand engages fan communities with Facebook in some capacity (for better or worse), with Likes and shares as plentiful as your promotional ad budget can go. Virtual goods today dominate pop culture, tech and emerging web 3.0 conversations, now fashionably recast as suspect-but-darling NFTs. Charity and cause partnerships are no longer a nice-to-have, but foundational in a world where brands are recognizing their need to give back as much as they promote.

Nowadays, As every marketing campaign is now a conversation, we are excited and humbled by this pioneering effort. A spirit we bring to our clients and brands every day. And we are especially proud to note that the most basic, simple-but-big idea from that campaign that hasn’t changed, is how ’Share a Coke’ is an ongoing brand equity campaign to this day. For that brief, shining moment, and the opportunity we enjoyed to help connect the biggest brand in the world with their fan community to do Good, with the simplest of social constructs, we will always be grateful.

On behalf of our team at Remarkable Digital Group, we wish you, your family and friends a fun and safe Super Bowl weekend.