by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki) It’s not the first time I’ve found a Coca-Cola campaign by FCB Johannesburg that’s stood out as my ‘best of the week’ — after all, it’s a brand that is made or broken by its image and brand identity.
In November last year, I wrote about the excellent “Share a Coke with…” campaign that’s still running, and the ever-so-clever hero-dog, Bobby, who scoured the Jozi streets for a can or bottle with his name on it. Even though it’s an international campaign, it was made local and relevant by the creative team led by Brett Morris at FCB Joburg.
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FCB was also responsible for last week’s ‘Rainbow Nation’ experience in Jozi as part of the buildup to the Freedom Day celebrations on 27 April 2014, marking 20 years of democracy in South Africa. It’s the sort of experiential exercise that gets people talking, twitterers tweeting and Instagrammers flashing.
FCB Johannesburg’s “Coca-Cola Rainbow Nation — 20 years of democracy in South Africa” for Coca-Cola South Africa
The idea, to commemorate Bishop Desmond Tutu’s famous coining of the phrase “the rainbow nation”, was to get a rainbow to appear above the giant Coca-Cola ‘billboard’ in downtown Johannesburg. The billboard also changed from the standard red to a multicoloured version.
Why do humans have a love affair with rainbows?
Perhaps it’s the symbology, which dates to the biblical story of Noah, or perhaps it’s the tales we were told as children — for Westerners, inevitably the Irish story of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, guarded by a leprechaun. Other cultures see rainbows as snakes or bridges, generally also with mystical properties.
In recent times, the rainbow has been co-opted for various social causes, including the Cooperative movement in the German Peasants’ War in the 16th century and, since the 1970s, the Gay Pride and LGBT movements.
Magic of storytelling
Human beings love stories, and an event like this draws upon the magic of storytelling, with the multilayered archetype of the ‘magical’ rainbow.
Rainbows only appear under specific circumstances, although anyone who has played with a garden sprinkler knows that they can be artificially created. But making one that spans an entire building required months of planning and research — and a specialist ‘Rainbow Maker’ in the form of one Fred Stern, an American-based man who does just that: make rainbows virtually on demand.
To be accurate, there has to be sun, and it must be early (before 10am) or late (after 4:30pm) in the day. This is because a rainbow is essentially reflected and refracted light: each raindrop is a curved ‘mirror’ that causes sunlight to be ‘split’ into its component parts, in the same way that a prism splits white light into the seven colours we have come to know as violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red.
In order to make this rainbow-to-order, water had to be pumped up to special sprinkler-type jets on the roof of the building by Mary Fitzgerald Square, which then created an artificial rain that — at the right time in the afternoon — created the wonderful effect that was seen by people standing to the west of the building.
Replicated at other sites
The experience was replicated at various other sites where Coca-Cola had its branding and, in addition, smaller rainbows were made at more ‘ground-level’ venues where the afternoon sun was able to create the effect.
The hashtag #rainbownation was used in social media for people to post pics of themselves enjoying the event and, despite winter starting to take hold in these parts, it seems that a lot of people got into the spirit of the event.
It’s a truism that human beings are naturally creative, and this event provided an opportunity for people to co-create by taking photos, playing in the water, or simply by being there and enjoying an unusual experience — which undoubtedly helped forge an emotional bond with the brand and allowed Coca-Cola to present itself as a fun-loving, high-energy product celebrating togetherness and positivity.
Look at the smiles
Experiential campaigns such as these thrive on social media buzz, and there has been a ton of this, from tweets to blogs to articles. But never mind the stats — one only has to look at the smiles of those who were there to see that it was memorable, and thus a success for the brand.
Ad of the Week, published on MarkLives every Wednesday, is penned by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki), the CEO of Ornico, a Brand Intelligence® firm that focuses on media, reputation and brand research.
If you are involved in making advertising that is smart, funny and/or engaging,
please let Oresti know about it at info@ornicogroup.co.za.
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