As an organisation Coca-Cola have always been legendary guarded about their most precious brand asset – the recipe of their Coke product. But in today’s ‘open’, socially connected society, can this type of corporate secret really be kept under lock and key?
Was it the actions of an underground cola freedom movement, the work of an internal corporate sabotage team, or just a smart marketing ploy to re-establish a brand message – but now the truth is out there – if you can find it!
Coca-Cola (or whoever) have released Coke’s secret formula, turning it into an ARG (Alternate Reality Game) aimed at attracting key social networking users, into an online hunt for the precious commodity.
The approach is a classic interactive narrative that uses multiple platforms and gaming elements, to tell a story that’s aimed at affecting participants’ ideas and expectations of what the brand is about.
The narrative is unraveled by following secret links hidden within the ‘guerrilla’ YouTube video, taking users on an online trip through Twitter, Facebook, unbranded and branded web destinations, and more YouTube content. Here’s a few links (this and this and this and this and this and this and this) from inside the video content.
Coke have managed to released an engaging, well told story through and intriguing set of interconnected online destinations. Picking up on many of the themes I’ve talked about before (on the online reinforcement of a brand narrative), this type of approach is guaranteed to generate some genuine word-of-mouth traffic.
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