Coca-Cola's Opener App Gets Teens Excited About TV Ad

Coca-Cola has integrated gamification across screens to get teens in Hong Kong to interact with its TV commercial and the chance to win a Volkswagen for the grand prize.

The month-long campaign attracted more than 71,200 downloads for its mobile app and more than two million total game plays, according to its creative agency McCann Hong Kong.

Following the success of the Chok! Chok! Chok! app from the previous year, Coca-Cola added a social layer for this summer’s rollout.

In order to play the game, teens have to download the “Open 喇 (la)” app on their smartphones, which is a catchy colloquial phrase to mean open now.

The agency uses high frequency ultrasound technology for the interactive ad so that mobile users could virtually open Coke bottle caps using their phones as the TVC broadcasts at 10 p.m. on Hong Kong’s popular TV station – TVB in the evenings.

Once a player successfully “opened” the bottle caps, she would have to exchange them with her friends through Facebook Connect to redeem prizes that she prefers. The prizes range from discount vouchers to buy the beverage drink at local convenience stores such as 7-Eleven and Circle K to travel, cinema, and theme park vouchers.

Through this interactive ad, Coca-Cola’s goal was to bring a refreshing and energizing experience to everyone.

Because of limited media budget, the full version of the game (in the form of a TVC) was only broadcast at the 10 p.m. time slot in the evenings instead of repeatedly throughout the day, Philip Tsang, group account director at McCann pointed out.

However, the TV ad was also uploaded on YouTube and the campaign site for participants to play the cross-screen game at their own time as well as share with their peers.

The localized campaign site iCoke.hk also features the mechanics on how to play the game and encouraged users to download the mobile app.

Coca-Cola’s summer campaign in Hong Kong included traditional media ad buys in print, outdoor bus shelters, and TV, as well as mobile ads and Facebook ads that have contributed to more than two million total play times within four weeks.