Tag: Brazil

Coca-Cola: Santa’s Forgotten Letters

When childhood letters get answered years later

The city of Santa Claus is situated in the state of Indiana, USA. The museum in the city brings together different objects related to Santa Claus and has long received letters from people around the world, described as doing so for more than 70 years.

Coca-Cola with its ad agency Ogilvy Brazil selected 75 forgotten letters and set out on an impossible task to find the writers and give them exactly what they asked for. The result was a touching movie that reinforces the magic of Christmas.

The impossible brief behind the film

The mechanism is straightforward and brutal in effort. Find a place where old letters to Santa were kept. Read through decades of messages that never got a reply. Select a small set of letters. Then track down the original writers and recreate the exact gifts they once requested.

“Forgotten letters” here means letters that were written to Santa as children, then stored and left unanswered for years.

In global FMCG holiday marketing, the fastest route to belief is to make generosity observable in the real world, not just promised in a tagline.

Santa’s Forgotten Letters is a Coca-Cola Christmas campaign by Ogilvy Brazil that turns archival letters into real deliveries, using the act of fulfillment as the proof of the story.

Why it lands: belief becomes physical

This works because it reverses the usual Christmas-ad formula. Instead of asking the audience to feel something while watching a film, it shows a real-world action first. The emotion is earned by the logistics.

The letters also do the writing for the brand. Each request is specific, personal, and time-stamped by childhood. That specificity makes the surprise feel less like marketing and more like closure.

The business intent hiding inside the sentiment

Coca-Cola is reinforcing a familiar role in the season. It wants to be the brand that protects the “magic” adults quietly miss, and it does that by staging a story people retell without needing to mention product features.

This is brand meaning built through a single, high-signal act that generates a long tail of earned conversation.

What to steal if you want emotion without manipulation

  • Start with an artifact, not an insight. Real letters, real handwriting, real specificity.
  • Make the work visible. Show the searching, the tracking, the making, the delivery.
  • Let the recipients carry the truth. The reactions are the credibility layer.
  • Limit the scope to protect authenticity. A small number of deliveries can feel more believable than a mass stunt.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Coca-Cola’s Santa’s Forgotten Letters campaign?

It is a Christmas film built around a real-world stunt: Coca-Cola and Ogilvy Brazil selected 75 old letters to Santa from Santa Claus, Indiana, tracked down the writers, and delivered the gifts they once asked for.

Why does the “old letters” device work so well?

Because it provides built-in authenticity and specificity. A handwritten childhood request feels personal and irrefutable, which makes the fulfillment feel earned rather than manufactured.

What should brands learn from the execution?

If you want belief, make the action do the persuading. Put the effort on-screen, keep the promise simple, and let real reactions confirm the story.

Volkswagen Twitter Zoom

Tickets are scattered across São Paulo. A live city map sits online. Every tweet pulls the zoom closer. Volkswagen sponsors the Planeta Terra Festival, a major music event in São Paulo, as a way to bring its trendy car, the Fox, closer to the city’s youth.

The challenge for AlmapBBDO is clear. Spread the Fox message beyond the festival walls, and reach youngsters across the entire city. The answer is Twitter Zoom.

First, a series of tickets is placed in different locations across São Paulo. Then a simple online platform launches with a Google Maps view of the entire city. The mechanic is straightforward. The more people tweet #foxatplanetaterra, the closer the zoom gets on the map. As the view tightens, the hunt becomes more precise. The first person to reach the ticket wins it. This runs for four days straight.

Within less than two hours, #foxatplanetaterra hits Trending Topics in São Paulo, and it stays there for the full length of the competition.

Why this works

It turns social volume into visible progress

Most hashtags create noise with no payoff. Here, every tweet has a clear purpose. It moves the map. People can see the impact building in real time, and that visibility keeps the loop going.

It creates a city-wide scavenger hunt without complex rules

The instruction is easy to understand. Tweet the hashtag. Watch the zoom. Run. The simplicity makes it easy to join, explain, and share.

It makes the audience do the distribution

To win, participants need more tweets. That requirement naturally drives peer-to-peer sharing. The community scales the campaign because the community benefits from scale.

The reusable pattern

  1. Pick a “canvas” people instantly understand. A city map, a countdown, a reveal grid, or any visual that can tighten, unlock, or progress.
  2. Convert participation into a tangible system response. Every action must visibly change something, immediately.
  3. Timebox the game. A short window keeps urgency high and reduces fatigue.
  4. Design fairness upfront. Clarify how wins are validated, and prevent obvious spam or gaming.
  5. Make the reward match the audience. Here, tickets fit the festival context and the youth target.

What to measure beyond impressions

  • Speed to momentum. How quickly the hashtag reaches a meaningful participation rate.
  • Unique contributors. How many distinct people tweet, not just total tweet volume.
  • Progress milestones. How many zoom stages are reached, and how long each stage holds attention.
  • Winner validation. Whether the “first to the ticket” outcome is trusted and replayed as a story.

Risks and guardrails that matter

  • Spam incentives. Volume mechanics invite low-quality tweeting. Add constraints or validation to protect credibility.
  • Platform dependency. If Twitter or the map experience glitches, the game breaks instantly.
  • Perceived fairness. If people doubt the winner selection, the campaign turns from fun to frustration.
  • Accessibility. Ensure the mechanic does not exclude people who cannot physically sprint across the city.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Volkswagen Twitter Zoom?

A city-wide campaign where tweets with #foxatplanetaterra trigger a Google Maps zoom. As the map zooms in, participants race to find hidden tickets across São Paulo.

Why does the mechanic spread so fast?

Because every new tweet visibly improves everyone’s chances. Participation behaves like progress, not just conversation.

What is the core design principle?

Make the audience action directly move a shared system, and make that movement visible in real time.

What is the simplest way to recreate it in another category?

Use a progressive reveal that unlocks with verified participation, then reward the first verified completion, not raw volume.

What is the biggest failure mode?

When the campaign can be gamed, or when the platform experience fails. Trust and momentum collapse immediately.

Coca-Cola: Happiness Truck

Happiness Machine, now with a Rio beach twist

Coca-Cola, whose Happiness Machine video was described as a runaway hit for the brand last year with 3 million views, is back with a sequel that offers more of an international flavor.

“Happiness Truck” takes place in Rio de Janeiro and is a twist on the original idea, which showed a Coke machine that spit out free Cokes, flowers, balloon animals, pizza and submarine sandwich at a college cafeteria. This time around, a special truck dispenses free Cokes as well as a beach toy, a surfboard, sunglasses, beach chairs, t-shirts and soccer balls.

The mechanic: one button, a public reward loop

The idea is almost embarrassingly simple. Put a big, inviting “PUSH” button on a branded truck. Let passersby trigger it. Then over-deliver on what comes out. Drinks first, then gifts that match the location and mood.

The Coca-Cola Happiness Truck is an experiential marketing activation where a branded truck dispenses free drinks and beach items to people who press a large button, turning a giveaway into a shared street moment.

In global FMCG marketing, these activations work best when the surprise is immediate, the moment is public, and the brand behavior feels generous rather than promotional.

Why it lands: the brand promise becomes observable

People do not need to be convinced by copy. They watch someone press a button and receive something real. The crowd reaction provides social proof, and the escalating gifts create a mini narrative that keeps people watching.

The Rio-specific items. surfboards, beach chairs, sunglasses. make the generosity feel locally tuned, not copy-pasted from the first film.

The business intent behind the “international sequel”

This is a sequel strategy that scales a successful format while refreshing the setting. It keeps the core concept intact. surprise rewards from a familiar Coca-Cola object. and broadens it into a global “where will happiness strike next” platform.

It also turns brand warmth into a repeatable content engine. Each location can add its own culturally legible gifts, which gives the series room to travel without changing the structure.

What to steal for your next street experience

  • Make the trigger obvious. One button beats instructions.
  • Design escalation. Start with the expected reward, then add unexpected layers to hold attention.
  • Localize the gifts. Choose items that instantly signal place and mood.
  • Capture the crowd, not just the hero. The bystanders are the credibility layer and the amplification engine.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Coca-Cola’s Happiness Truck?

It is a street activation in Rio de Janeiro where a branded truck dispenses free Coca-Cola and beach-themed gifts to passersby who press a large button, extending the earlier Happiness Machine concept.

How is it different from the original Happiness Machine?

The original centered on a vending machine in a cafeteria. Happiness Truck moved the same “surprise generosity” mechanic into the street and tailored the rewards to a Rio beach context.

Why does the push-button format work so well?

It removes friction and creates instant social proof. One simple action triggers a visible reward, so the story is easy to understand, watch, and retell.