Coca-Cola’s Happiness microsite cites music as one of our main sources of shared happiness, writing about the physical affects of music and how it transcends individual cultures; a universal source of happiness:
Music has been a cultural passion across the world for millennia. Feeling the deep bass reverberating through your body, full bodied guitar solos pouring out notes and chords, and poetically crafted vocals that send our minds spinning and souls souring. Music is the ultimate shared experience around the world. (http://us.coca-cola.com/happiness/happy-music/)
This insight has been used to create another global Coke campaign, running in several countries, including Thailand, of song lyrics printed on labels. Although clearly inspired by this global insight (evoking the sensory happiness we feel when listening to loved songs) execution is strengthened by local Thai insights.
Thai music lyrics on a Coca-Cola bottle
Thailand, like many of its SE Asian counterparts, is Karaoke crazy. Unlike the western world, where the prospect of standing in front of a crowd of people and Mariah-Carey-ing your heart can be pretty daunting, Karaoke is the perfect Thai night out. Karaoke bars line the streets in even the poorest suburbs, and there is a strong connection between the written lyrics of songs and associated emotions. The lyrics carry not only strong associations of the music itself, but the shared memories of standing on stage with friends singing one’s heart out.
Beautiful beaches of Kho Phi Phi with Coca-Cola umbrellas
This same association exists for westerners who dance a song (something that Coca-Cola agrees with) as this campaign was found in Croatia during the music festival season in 2014 (see my proposition). However, I would suggest there is a key difference: for the western dancer the written words of a song are a greater leap – “what song is that again?” – than the karaoke singer who sees them on a screen whenever they perform, and you might even witness shoppers singing in supermarket aisles in Thailand.
The strength of the lyric-based sweet sounds of Coca-Happiness here is even greater.
Coca-Cola & Travelling Brands 