Open Happiness campaign- Pop does Pop

Next on my agenda is the ‘open happiness’ campaign song Coca-Cola created in 2009. Now don’t get me wrong, this campaign and the Coca-Cola brand is not the direct focus of my blog, marketing in general is, I just happen to have noticed these marketing strategies and felt the need to comment.

So… Coca-Cola have made a song. They’ve gathered together prestigious artists, had them write lyrics and make music. I will not reward this effort with a ‘Kudos’ as I have done previously but merely acknowledge the jingle as a good addition to the campaigns marketing strategies. As you know, I resent the brand, so I will not give out compliments willy-nilly unless factually obvious.

Let’s take a look at what this song has done for the brand; well the open happiness music video has had over 1.8 million hits, so it is viral. In fact there are quite a few videos relating to this song on YouTube including a live performance at the 'My Coke Fest'- seriously, is there any form of promotion this obscenely globalised company hasn't covered?! Nope, didn't think so. Anyways, based on the song's viral presence, it has promoted the brand "spread happiness" and targeted a young audience. But this has been viral for 3 years, there are YouTube videos that generate 1 million hits in the first day, I'm not sure if I can deem this as success for such a big brand.

So, have YOU seen it? As ever, I will not post a link to this video but you should probably see how horrendous it is for yourself. There is a 'character' if you like, that I can only describe as the human centipede (from about 2.25 minutes in). I think Coke tried just a little bit too much to be all creative, flamboyant and original to the extent that it just looks like a teletubby vomited into an animation program and invited a few celebs to the party.

But... saying that, the song is good. It has the Coca-Cola jingle implemented and is catchy. Apart from a few iffy ones, the lyrics are ok and do give an up-beat feel. The beat and music itself isn't bad, worth listening to if you were an adolescent, but not enough guitars for my personal liking. All in all I say fair play for the music, this is commemorating the music artists, not Coca-Cola. Coke- you have failed me with the video but I admire the efforts to make sure you don't have too much money in the CCC bank account and cover all areas of marketing.