Coca-Cola launched an augmented reality campaign in China called "Faces of the City" to celebrate Chinese youth identity and connect users to their cities. They designed Coke cans with illustrations representing the unique culture of 23 Chinese cities. By scanning the cans with their phone, users could access a digital platform on Baidu featuring AR games, a personality test, city tours, and a map connecting users across China. The campaign increased Coke's sales volume by 226% and brand love scores by 6.8%, achieving their goals of boosting premium sales and brand impressions amongst Chinese millennials.

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Weekly Assignment 5:
Augmented Reality
ADVE 709 CREATIVE STRATEGIES
PROFESSOR GAURI MISRA-DESHPANDE
MAGGIE WALKER

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What is AR?
Augmented Reality is one of the biggest technology trends right now, and it is only going to get bigger as AR
ready smartphones and other devices become more accessible. AR lets us use the real-life environment right
in front of us - trees swaying in the park, dogs chasing balls, kids playing soccer - with a digital augmentation
overlaid on it.
With advances in AR technology, it is readily available and is being used in a myriad of ways including
Snapchat lenses, apps to help you find your car in a crowded parking lot, and a variety of shopping apps that
let you try on clothes without even leaving the home.
Perhaps the most famous example of AR technology is Pokemon Go, the mobile app released in 2016. Among
many other notable examples, Coca-Cola uses AR frequently to enhance their customer's experience.

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Coca-Cola Faces
of the City
AUGMENTED REALITY DESIGN
CAMPAIGN

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Coca-Cola increased market share and brand love in China by launching an Augmented Reality
experience on Baidu that connected young people through games and live maps. The brand found that
we don’t live in cities, cities live in us and it is the people who make the city, not the other way around.
They celebrated the individuality of Chinese youths through the cities that live in them by creating an
AR experience on Baidu that connected users to their cities through a city exploration game, trivia
game, a personality test and a real-time map connecting youths. The campaign helped increase
volume sales by 226%, with 130 million cans consumed, and brand love scores rose by 6.8%.
Coca-Cola wanted to increase volume at a premium price, increase brand love amongst existing
consumers and increase brand impressions amongst Chinese youth on social media. As a brand that
symbolizes “togetherness”, Coca-Cola sets out to identify the thing that truly brings Chinese millennials
together, which starts with their differences. This led Coca-Cola to a common passion that truly united
Chinese youth and made them proud. The target audience was urban Chinese millennials aged 17 to
30.

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There is an overly easy tendency to reduce cities
to landmarks and iconic images. The city itself is
what makes the city, right? And then the people
come along to fill it up. But actually, this is
backwards. The outward trappings of a given city
are nothing more than the manifestation of the
character of the people who live there. The
people, not the skyline, are the city. The core
strategic approach to the campaign was to
celebrate the individuality of Chinese youths
through the cities that live in them. With this in
mind, Coca-Cola set out to create iconic can
designs that personified the cities of China - the
“Faces of the City”, which in turn, represented the
many faces that Chinese teens could connect and
resonate with.
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For the campaign execution, first, Coca-Cola illustrated can designs that embodied the people of the
cities in China. As a design-led brand, they researched and identified the most iconic cultural features
of 23 cities. These elements were then composed into a character-personified by a face that
represented the unique sense of individuality of each city. Noma Bar carried out the designs in the
limited palette of black, white, and Coke red, so all the designs were simple, yet bold.
More than just a sleek design, they partnered with Baidu to create a digital platform that connected
users to their cities, and each other. All accessible through a simple scan of the illustrations on the can
with your mobile phone. Activities on the Baidu platform included an AR-based city exploration game
that brought their cities to life, as well as a trivia game that brought the illustrations of the cans to life; a
personality test; a 360-degree city tour; and lastly, a real-time map that allowed you to interact with
other youths around China who are also online at the same time as you.
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Just like Google, Baidu is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing
in Internet-related services and products and artificial intelligence. It is one of the
largest Internet companies in the world. Baidu offers various services, including a
Chinese search engine, as well as a mapping service called Baidu maps.

9. Face of the City gave teens a medium
to express their identities, connect
with each other through sharing their
city stories, and a great reason to
celebrate themselves as unique
multi-faceted individuals. They
increased volume at a premium
price, increased brand love amongst
existing customers, increased brand
impressions amongst Chinese youths
on social media, and became the
most talked about brand in Chinese
beverage industry.
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12. Resource Links
https://0-www-warc-com.library.scad.edu/content/article/tangrams/coca-cola-coke-coca-cola-faces-of-the-city/129769
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT3JyDjRcYE
https://vimeo.com/260373236
https://youtu.be/zCrHEmgcO60
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