Coca-Cola Expedition 206

Coca-Cola Expedition 206

 January 1, 2010.  A day of celebration, new beginnings and hangovers.

And the ultimate search for happiness... no pressure...

Coca-Cola is launching into the New Year with its biggest social media campaign ever. Expedition 206 will send three 20-something "happiness ambassadors" on a 365 day journey to 206 countries and territories where Coca-Cola is sold to find out what makes people happy.

Coke wisely selected ambassadors who already have large fan bases in social media.  They narrowed down a pool of 60 candidates to 18, who were interviewed by Coke. Nine finalists (three groups of three) were selected and then chosen by consumers.

The winning team is called, The MIX, and comprises: Tony, a kindergarden teacher from Washington D.C.,  Kelly, a uni student from Brussels, and Antonio, a uni student from Mexico City.   Between the three of them they speak eight languages - which should come in handy when traveling around the world (Mashable).

Expedition 206 Route Map

Their journey kicks off in Madrid and will be documented through a number of media and social channels, including YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, and... wait for it... Facebook. The full campaign will be posted to www.Expedition206.com.  Followers will be able to weigh in on what the trio should do and see in each location – I’m interested to see the extent to which this crowd sourcing will influence their itinerary.

 Results will be measured media impressions, Facebook and Twitter followers, as well as page views.  In terms of digital metrics, they may also want to consider the percentage of buzz containing related links & multimedia, tags, subscriptions, and increases in search.

While the US comms team is looking after the logistical details in each market, the campaign is forcing a number of global markets to develop their social and digital media strategies, which is a great thing for both Coca-Cola and the individual agencies. Oftentimes the central media strategy for big companies are decided in key cities and then adapted to other markets.  In this case, the communication channels are predetermined (though there will be technical considerations for cities with insufficient infrastructure) and will therefore push slagging markets into new media.

Apart from the allure of a worldwide adventure, I'm not sure the campaign is that exciting.  Obviously this will heavily depend on the extent that the ambassadors can captivate and capture the world.  I think we generally have a good idea of what makes people happy; obviously it means different things to different people.  It will be interesting to see if the team actually arrives at any new insights into happiness or if this will end up being a 206-country Coke-fest.

Polls out for how many bottles of Coke products the ambassadors will consume throughout this campaign??