Bringing the sparkle home with Coca-Cola

Coca Cola spent a few crores to execute this OOH activity in over 20 towns

As part of its Diwali-centric campaign, Coca Cola has taken its latest television commercial beyond television sets. The thought in The TVC -- to celebrate togetherness -- has been extended to OOH properties across 20 towns in five states.

The idea behind the OOH campaign is to celebrate homecoming this Diwali with Coke. Animated Warli characters appear on the Coke creatives, performing actions that symbolise celebrating Diwali at one's home, with one's family.

The OOH campaign has been executed by MOMS Outdoor Media Solutions, the outdoor arm of Madison. According to the industry sources, the spend on this OOH activity ran into a few crores.

"The brief given to us was to make the consumer relate Coke with homecoming in the festive season; and hence, taking OOH media strategically to strengthen this association," says Dipankar Sanyal, COO, MOMS.

To create the atmosphere of celebration in Diwali, 29 innovations of various kinds have been done across cities.

MOMS executed the OOH campaign in more than 20 towns in the states of Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, besides the cities of Lucknow, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar and Patna. These areas were chosen on the basis of Coca-Cola's sales figures -- the campaign was executed in areas that contribute the highest sales.

To execute the campaign, a mix of OOH media was used, including billboards, unipoles and mobile vans.

In Mantri Mall, Bengaluru, MOMS created a 10X10 feet hut with mud walls. The walls of the hut featured Coke branding; Warli art characters were also created on the walls, with the traditional white-rice paste used during festivals. These characters depicted the homecoming celebration on Diwali. The mall receives about 15,000-20,000 patrons on weekends and 5,000-8,000 on weekdays.

Huts with thatched roofs were also created on two mobile vans to go across Bengaluru. These vans donned a festive look with decorative lights and lamps, to underscore Diwali celebrations with Coke.

The hut-activity was carried out only in Bengaluru, as it has a higher young-migrant population, and youth comprise the TG for Coca-Cola.

To further reinforce the association of Coke with Diwali -- the festival of lights -- several billboards and unipoles were bordered with decorative lights. This was done in six towns on 25 sites -- popular locations with good sites were chosen for the activity.

With homecoming as the theme of the campaign, the message 'Come Home this Diwali' was also illuminated with neon lights on billboards and mobile vans. The Warli characters were backlit and blinked in sequence to depict dancing in celebration. Bus shelters in Bhopal were decorated with cut-outs of Coke bottles and decorative lights on back-lit shelters.