Produced as an international collaboration across VML’s global network, the campaign was a big winner at this year’s Cannes Festival of Creativity, winning eight Cannes Lions awards - three Gold Lions, four Silver Lions and a Bronze.
The campaign honours the everyday folks who love their brand enough to emulate it. Coca-Cola noticed that interpretations of its iconic logo were being painted on walls and signs outside spaza shops around the world.
They were within their rights to crack down on the businesses and artists involved. Instead, they decided to embrace them. Tapping into VML’s global network, they collected Coca-Cola logo artwork from around the world and celebrated it in a campaign that showcases the diversity of the brand’s customer base and how entrenched it has become in global culture.
It began in November 2023 when Wendy Machanik, head of production at VML South Africa, received a WhatsApp asking if she and her team could go out and find Coke Expressions.
“We had to find stores – or as we know them, spaza shops – where a local artist has painted the Coke logo in their way. Of course, these artists don’t know what CI is or exactly what the logo is supposed to look like.”
Wendy recruited two scouts – one in Johannesburg and one in Cape Town – whose job was to drive around, searching for creative interpretations of Coca-Cola logos. “It wasn’t just about the designs,” explains Machanik.
“They looked at the location of the design, what surrounded it, the artist and their story. What was important for them was the people who were involved – it wasn’t just the Coke Expression itself.”
The project is also an example of technology’s enabling impact on advertising.
“What I love about technology is that you can do these things in real-time,” says Machanik.
“The scouts sent me photographs and voice notes as they were driving around and dropped location pins so that I would be able to go and find the artwork that had been chosen.”
These were documented, packaged and sent to the creative team in Brazil for final selection. This meant that the team in Brazil could gather submissions from VML colleagues all around the world in a matter of weeks.
By December they had made their selections and Machanik and her team were dispatched to create content with three chosen artists and shop-owners from South Africa.
The final selection from South Africa included two Coke Expressions from the Western Cape and one from Johannesburg.
The shop owners and artists were excited to be part of the campaign, which included billboards around the world featuring the selected Coke Expressions, a TV ad that aired globally, video interviews shared on social media, and print ads in local and international publications.
The Baraka Shop Coke Expression also made it onto Coca-Cola cans.
Machanik is delighted to see the campaign perform so well in Cannes this year, as the campaign was one that she thoroughly enjoyed being a part of but that it was very challenging, especially with the time difference.
"But I loved the challenge. I was able to choose the team, which was very bespoke, and they helped me create amazing content – the feedback we got was that the South African content was very engaging and well shot.
“And I loved meeting all these amazing people! I'm always grateful for my job because I get to go to places I wouldn't normally go and meet people I wouldn’t have met – like Philani who painted the Coke logo in Orlando.”
Apart from Machanik, from South Africa the team included SA photographer: Kgomotso Neto and SA videographer, Eldon Van Aswegen. The international production lead: from VML Sao Paulo is Nicole Godoy.
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