31/03/2021

Coca-Cola Leverages NCAA March Madness Via ‘Unbelievable Double Take’ Retro Hoops Ads

Late March saw Coca-Cola leverage NCAA March Madness via a multichannel campaign called ‘Unbelievably Delicious’ spearheaded by a ‘Unbelievable Double Take’ hero spot which digitally inserts images of Coca-Cola flavours into footage of memorable moments from previous Men’s College Division 1 hoops tournaments.

 

The campaign, which promotes Coca-Cola and Zero with cherry, vanilla, cherry vanilla or orange vanilla flavours, taps into March Madness using video technology to produce updated nostalgia via an ad that rewrites basketball history.

 

The hero spot reworks the climax of the famous buzzer beating finish to the 1983 championship game and sees victorious North Caroline State centre Cozell McQueen perched on top of the hoop with a bottle of Cherry-Vanilla Coke beside updated brand signage.

 

 

The aim, according to the marketers, is to bring generations of audiences together and pay tribute to iconic sports (and entertainment) moments to broaden its audience reach.

 

UM created the spot along with Warner Media and production house Ryff and the marketing initiative spans TV commercials during March Madness as well as a social influencer push, OOH, mobile, online, retail and in-person at the NCAA tournament in Indianapolis.

 

As well as the hoops spot, the campaign also includes two additional retro TVCs called ‘Pit Stop’ and ‘First Time’ which leverage 80s movie Teenwolf-style, mythical half-human creatures trying the flavours.

 

 

While the influencer campaign strand stars identical twin sisters Vanessa and Veronica Merrell (who boast 1.6m Instagram followers and 4.4m on TikTok) who play the role of ‘flavour curators’ and demonstrate their preferred pairings of cola flavours and snacks on Instagram.

 

The ‘Double Takes’ ad was created for Coca-Cola’s Chris Elliot (Director End to End Connections + Media), Kate Santore (Director Content Excellence), Michael Hughes (Senior Sports Marketing Manager) by a team at agency UM which included Matt Cordes (Partner Integrated Investment), Molly Zimmerman (Partner Integrated Investment), Brooke Lyon (Partner), Rob Hersey (Group Creative Director), Roberto Rubio (Associate Creative Director), Jessica Klien (Group Content Director), Sara Goldman (Content Manager) and Alex Treiber (Producer).

 

The production house was Ryff with Roy Taylor (CEO), Sarah Coursey (Global Sales) and Aex Reed (Head of Production).

 

While Pit Stop and First Time were created by agency Anomaly with production partners Smuggler, Work Editorial and MPC LA.

 

 

Comment:

 

At a time when ad production is still limited by the effects of the pandemic, this is another example of a retro-themed marketing deepfake and there are hints here of State Farm’s ‘The Last Dance’ sponsor campaigns with ESPN from 2020.

 

According to Coke’s marketing team, this is the first-time that cutting-edge 3-D product models have been rendered into famous sports scenes which were originally filmed in standard definition formats and that the technique is ‘a truly unique marriage between new and old’.

 

TV ratings for the college basketball tournament have slightly slipped in the last couple of years, but the tourney still generates significant viewership and this approach aims to use to engage with multiple generations.

 

The campaign is part of Coke’s strategy to rebound from the pandemic which adversely affected sales in out-of-home outlets (including restaurants, bars and sports stadiums).

 

 

 



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