Responses by DAVID the Agency and the Coca-Cola Company
Background: After 126 years of Coca-Cola, we asked ourselves what could the company possibly do today that’s refreshing. Coca-Cola has literally done everything under the sun. But, that challenge ended up becoming an opportunity to do something no other brand could do. We leveraged Coca-Cola’s long history of advertising by immediately connecting our memories of “the Coca-Cola experience”—whether it’s the uncapping of a bottle or the fizzing of a recently poured Coke.
Reasoning: This phenomenon that happens in our heads is called synesthesia, when two different senses in our brain cross due to one stimulus triggering the other. In this case, our print ads triggered imaginary sounds in our heads by simply looking at iconic images of the Coca-Cola experience.
Challenges: Finding a line simple enough that could actually trigger people’s memories of Coca-Cola. We didn’t want to lay it all out in front of the consumer. Our aim, after all, was for the consumer to make the connections in their own heads. We knew early on that the line needed to be confident enough to rely on Coca-Cola’s 126-year history to help them put the pieces together, without sounding too arrogant.
Favorite details: That the synesthesia actually worked! Anyone and everyone who’s ever had a Coke can relate to this idea—no matter where they’re from or how old they are. It’s universal, unique and intimate to consumers because this is a campaign that uses their memories that they strongly tie so much with Coca-Cola.
Visual influences: Macro photography impacted the way we visually expressed our idea. It allowed us to be up close and personal to truly capture those iconic Coca-Cola sounds in print. We think that if it were executed a different way, people wouldn’t have associated the images with those sounds deeply stored in their memories.
Anything new: The same way that the Coca-Cola “Try Not To Hear This” campaign reminded the consumer what they’ve always known—that it’s a one-of-a-kind brand—it reminded us that simplicity sells, too. We’ve always known that the key to a big idea is thinking simple. But it’s easy to forget that when one is in the process of trying to come up with something new. If there’s another lesson that we’ve learned from working on this project, it is that we should never underestimate the most powerful medium of all: people’s memories.