The Coca-Cola Company approached UGA's Grady College with a fascinating and challenging task: determine how to extend the Diet Coke brand into the millennial generation. This was the ultimate project of my university experience. With a team of seven members, we developed an entire year-long campaign to address Diet Coke's millennial hopes: Go Places.
The Go Places campaign went beyond the digital world and into reality, traveled coast to coast, and stretched across all major points of purchase. The idea was to unite the facts that Diet Coke can power anyone and can take them to new places. Most importantly, the power of the campaign rested in the hands of millennials. Participants would not only be involved – they be the deciding factor in determining where the campaign would go and what would take place across the campaign.
My team proposed a multi-stop national bus tour, Across the States Tour, where each stop would be determined and designed by millennials. Through multiple voting channels – including Instagram, interactive vending machines, and Freestyle machines – users would provide their valuable say-so.
Through their responses, states of mind (e.g.: artisans, adventurers, fashionistas) from each localized area of voters would be declared and be embraced at the possible upcoming local tour stop.
Talented micro-influencers from every part of the nation would help promote the campaign and voting process. If a micro-influencer's area won, the influencer would be featured at the tour stop along with their specific talents. The campaign also would leverage paid branded digital media on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
The mobile experience would be a huge focus of the Go Places campaign. Through a partnership with an up-and-coming checklist app, SOON, Diet Coke would have the potential to connect on a daily basis with its audience. Branded streaming music playlists would also be promoted across channels. Lastly, an innovate push into virtual reality would allow Diet Coke drinkers to experience the campaign from anywhere with a cardboard headset supplied by Diet Coke retail packaging.
And to tie the campaign together, a microsite would act as a central hub providing information on how to participate and interact with Diet Coke.
Go Places was pitched by my team to ranking staff of Diet Coke at The Coca-Cola Company's headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. Along with the entire campaign, the sizzle reel above received praise from Coke staff and University of Georgia professors.
The Go Places campaign was the result of much collaboration between all members of my team. Each member provided ideas and their own talents to the project. My greatest contributions were in the areas of creative direction, book design, and motion graphics.
