Coke enlists ‘happiness ambassadors’ for globe-trotting social media campaign

November 19, 2009

For its largest social-media project to date, Coca-Cola will send three 20-something “happiness ambassadors” on a brand-building and public relations tour of 206 countries and territories where Coca-Cola is sold. Armed with laptops, video cameras, smartphones and other social-media tools to publicly document their search for happiness, the trio will begin its 275,000-mile trek in Madrid on Jan. 1, AdAge.com reports.

Events that Coke’s social-media agents will attend include the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, and the 20th anniversary of McDonald’s in Russia. The team will chronicle its journey on an official Web site and via Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Twitter, @x206. Fans will be invited to make suggestions on what the trio should see and do at each destination.

To measure the program’s external resonance, Coca-Cola will track page views, media impressions, Facebook and Twitter followers. A big challenge for any social-media program is convincing consumers to care, which is why Coke reportedly chose three young “social media connoisseurs” with existing fan bases.  — Greg Beaubien

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