Ads & Ends
Nanette Franco-Diyco
RAUL M. CASTRO, chairman and CEO of McCann Worldgroup, Phils., Inc., dramatized in no uncertain terms how Coca-Cola’s brand new television commercial lures the young to “taste the feeling” of Coca-Cola — even if it’s indeed the best-known brand in the whole wide world.
Bernadette Chincuanco, vice-president and managing partner leading the Coca-Cola team for McCann Philippines, revealed that Coca-Cola launched globally this year its “Taste the Feeling” campaign with a series of TV commercials executed by their global partner agencies designated to work on the campaign. “Supermarket” is one of them and is currently airing in the Philippines.
The 30-seconder has this young girl playing the part of a convenient store clerk in front of the CCTV security camera monitor. The girl watches the monitor eagerly as a nice-looking young man gets a bottle of Coca-Cola and drinks the bottle empty.
The next scene shows the girl grabbing a bottle from the fridge behind her and telling the guy that he’s in luck; he can get another Coca-Cola free — provided he drinks it in the store. How’s that for allurement! Great casting, acting, cinematography and production design!
The newly launched campaign strongly expands the Coca-Cola market to the youth who may still not be Coca-Cola-oriented. As Raul explained, the competitive stage today goes way beyond soft drinks, where choices open to the youth involve a whole collage of categories of drinks and beverages.
No matter how timely and relevant to the youth this new global TVC may be, I personally prefer two Coca-Cola TV materials that Raul also presented to my seminar class at the Ateneo de Manila last Friday. I then realized that these two have been my favorites for years now. They are the most emotionally driven and are a perfect fit to the Filipino target consumer.
Both are part of the prior “Open Happiness” campaign. And it is significant that both are, strictly speaking, not global materials. They were produced entirely by McCann Philippines.
The first is the “OFW Project” Christmas TVC, where Coca-Cola arranged for three overseas Filipino workers from Europe and the US to come home for Christmas to their unknowing families. Real-life drama at its very best.
The second is “The Happiest Thank You”, with names as part of Coca-Cola’s labels. What was so distinctly Filipino was the special selection of people whom we would see serving us in our everyday world. These are the people we call “Ate”, “Inday”, or “Boss” simply because we don’t bother to get to know their names — security guards in our condo buildings, a favorite bagger in the supermarket, or the toll booth attendant along the highway. In the commercial, some were given Coca-Cola bottles with their names on them. Quite a lot of research had to be done here. But, the frames showing their faces all aglow via hidden cameras were magical!
Generally speaking, global TVCs may have production hype that the local agencies can ill afford to match. But, local productions generally have more heart.
And let’s face it — whether we like it or not, we very often are all heart!
Talk about production hype: just about an hour ago, I chanced upon a truly spectacular Coca-Cola billboard in the US that actually pours out Coke Zero to thrilled consumers. It’s aptly called “Coke Zero Drinkable Advertising”. Wouldn’t a humongous billboard quenching our thirst during these scorchingly hot days of summer just be grand, right smack in the middle of Metro Manila?! That would dramatically be Tasting the Feeling!
Credits. COCA-COLA Far East Limited/Client team: Stephan Czypionka, vice-president for marketing; Jesus Ferreira, IMC director; Jonah De Lumen, sparkling marketing manager; Jenny Cinco, sparkling senior content manager/ASEAN content manager; Jacinto Gervacio, digital manager; and Derek Sotto, senior brand manager, Coke Red.
McCann Worldgroup local adaptation: Bernadette Chincuanco, vice-president and managing partner and Poteet Gimenez, business group director. CRAFT MWG: Rose Natanauan-Gonzales, general manager and Sheryll Manalese, production director. IMC Launch Campaign: Bernadette Chincuanco; Poteet Gimenez; Tiffany Uy, account director; Kenzo Villanueva, senior account manager; Joe Dy, executive creative director; Chan Dela Calzada, creative director; Jopy Arnaldo, copywriter; and Meck Besinga, art director.
Nanette Franco-Diyco ended her 15th year advertising career as Vice-President of JWT, segueing into the world of academe, currently teaching communications at the Ateneo de Manila University.
