Gunther Sonnenfeld on Curation, Community and Coca-Cola’s Open Happiness Project | on Sparksheet - Post #2 in a series

via sparksheet.com

Excerpt:

2011/04/28 | By Gunther Sonnenfeld

"In my last post, I focused on how storytelling impacts business by enlisting people as participants in stories they care about so they buy the products required to fullfill a human need.

But questions remain as to how brands can build narratives that tap into pre-existing stories and communities.

For Coca-Cola, this has become quite an exploration. While seizing market share is an ongoing battle with rival brand Pepsi, tapping into consumer advocacy and niche communities has become an equally important brand goal – a goal that was achieved almost by accident, with results that not only boosted sales but presented a host of new media opportunities.

Branding happiness

In 2007, Coca-Cola ran a series of commercials for a campaign called Open Happiness; the spots were beautifully conceived, animated brushstrokes of colour and imagination, depicting a storyworld centred around the idea that happiness is what we create for ourselves in our everyday lives.

They featured Coke as more than a product or brand, but as a support base for individual explorations around the meaning of happiness. There was no harsh product placement or forced messaging. The commercials tested remarkably well.

Coke knew that there was a bigger narrative to explore here, so it decided to expand the commercials into different narrative pieces leveraging established music and artist communities. What became the Happiness Factory created a groundswell of interest around the “metastory” of happiness that culminated in a variety of media types that were adopted, shaped and shared as new stories. This involved everything from mobile applications, to games, blogs and video extensions.

Eventually those pieces blew out even further. Open Happiness kickstarted a world tour of Coke bloggers and laid the foundation for platforms like Coca-Cola Conversations, in which brand stewards curate interesting and fun social artifacts such as Eric Clapton signature guitars, secret soda formulas, subway murals, circus caravans, old inventory lists and a host of cool memorabilia that have been generated or supported by the brand over the years.

As for the measurable success of the Open Happiness campaign to date, we know this:

- There are more than 25 million likes on Coca-Cola’s Facebook page, which is centered around Open Happiness (by contrast, Pepsi has less than 4 million likes).
- Coca-Cola’s worldwide sales have spiked since Open Happiness began.
- Open Happiness has become the new global platform for all integrated marketing for the brand.
- Earlier this year, Coke was awarded the “Best in Show” Addy award for the campaign...."

read the full post:

http://sparksheet.com/curation-community-and-coca-cola’s-open-happiness-project/

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