Firefox and Opera compatible

Client: The Coca-Cola Company
Creative Agency: AKQA

Coca-Cola launched "The Coke Side of Life" as its new brand site in July of 2006 as a way to redefine its global marketing platform. Its visual effects, coupled with easy navigation tools, invite users to explore, and contribute videos, art, and even music on the site.

The center of the campaign is dedicated to user-generated content. Visitors are invited to watch video clips of commercials created by other coke-fans as well as art in the form of wallpapers and characters. There are contests listed every month and users can create their own coke-inspired art on the site through the, "Coca Cola Creator" tool, use it as wallpaper and share it with friends when they're done.

Marc Mathieu, senior vice president for Global Core Brands, The Coca-Cola Company said in a statement, "Throughout Coke's history, we have seen people use the brand, its icons and heritage as a creative source. In the 60s it was Andy Warhol, today it's people all over the world on the internet developing their own interpretations of the brand. We believe the independent creative process is a vital part of our heritage. With this site we want to give a further opportunity for these imaginative minds to be part of our creative process."

With the Coke side of life, Coca-Cola has successfully embraced the user's voice -- without jeopardizing the identity of their brand -- in a visually stunning and inviting way.
--Krisserin Canary, associate editor, iMedia Communications

Call me old fashioned, but can't we just teach the world to stick with a tagline that works? Coke is it. It just is. But if they want to own another side of life, that's their prerogative, I suppose.


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This site is very creative, and uses user-generated media as its core content. The navigation is easy to understand and use (very nice use of tabs on the left side of the screen), but the toughest part is getting into the whole experience. If you don’t know what this promotion is about, it’s very difficult to get started. But if you stick with it, some of the videos are interesting and fun. 
--Matt Wright, director of online video strategy, HowStuffWorks

The "Coke Side of Life" is a joyful site, full of colors and images.

The creativity of the site delivers an enthusiastic message and supports user interaction with the Coke brand. The navigation is also very good: when the user arrives on the site he's immediately offered only with two options: participate or watch.

 
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The call-to-action is straightforward and allows a quick an easy access to all the content. In an eyeblink one can understand what the site is about, and this is brilliant. The site has been live about nine months, making Coca-Cola a real pioneer in the Web 2.0 challenge.

I believe the site could work quite well for building a community around the Coke brand, as well as to give users their 5MB of fame. Unfortunately, from what I can see from the number of entries to the different competitions, it looks like not many people felt like participating, and this something Coke should really investigate.
-- Martina Zavagno, editor-in-chief, Adverblog