Of all the countries I have visited so far, Vietnam has the most familiar campaigns for Coca-Cola – here can be found its “Share a Coke” name bottles plus some local campaigns based on Vietnamese insights.
Vietnamese names on bottles as part of the Coke campaign
The Share a Coke campaign works here as it does in the UK with the 250 most popular names being printed on bottle labels and cans, so that local people can either find their own name on the bottle or that of a friend or family member. When I asked a receptionist in Hoi An about this campaign, her reaction was “I haven’t found my name yet”, suggesting this campaign has the same treasure hunt effect as in the UK, and that the novelty of having your name on a bottle is something shared globally.
However, Coca-Cola do not just run global marketing in Vietnam, they also implement local activity. One such campaign, based on a really clear insight, is the Coke bottle “second life” campaign. Ogilvy and Mather China converted empty Coca-Cola bottles into a series of tools and useful equipment using bottle caps given away with the drink.
This clever campaign taps into what SE Asians (especially in the poorer echelons of society) already do with everything – recycle, upcycle and reuse. One example of this resourcefulness is using glass Coca-Cola bottles to hold homemade moped fuel, sold cheaply at roadsides (something I mentioned in my Cambodia blog), but the bottles, canvas banners and fridges supplied by Coke can be found everywhere, being used in a variety of different ways.
However, the main insight behind this campaign is more universal. In the UK Coca-Cola unrolled a bottle shaped patch of lawn in the heart of London and encouraged people to take their shoes off and relax on the grass, gaining welcome relief from the stresses and strains of a hot, busy city. Vietnam’s “second life” Coke bottle campaign does the same thing, helping relieve the stress of everyday life for local people. Imaginatively, their plastic coke bottle might become a nightlight or sauce holder or something equally unexpected. Combined with the novelty of it being a Coca-Cola bottle and endorsed by Coca-Cola, the campaign brings a little light relief to their world and shows the Vietnamese that this American company gets them. You can see other localised Coke campaigns based on the same insight in other far flung countries – such as the summer bus shelter in Sweden or the calorie driven vending machine in the US.
I think the main point of difference between the “Second Life” campaign and these other examples (which come under the global campaign “Where will happiness strike next?”) is that the Vietnamese campaign is more permanent. All of the “happiness strike” campaigns are about a momentary treat disrupting the every day, whereas the Vietnamese campaign creates a more permanent effect, evoking a longer lasting warmth towards the brand through bottles being reused in unexpected ways to bring happiness – such as dumbells or felt tip pens.
So it seems some insights are universal for Coca-Happiness but that executions have to be localised to fit each country perfectly. Although the novelty of a Coke bottle screwdriver might be appreciated in the UK, it doesn’t show the same understanding of the onward journey of the Coke bottle there, in a society that has less economic need to find ingenious second lives for refuse. Here, old bottles and cans tend to end up in bins and recycling plants, and when they are recycled and reborn, we barely notice.
Coca-Cola & Travelling Brands 