Background

Coca-Cola Company is the worlds largest beverage company providing consumers with more
than 500 sparkling and still brands, such as, Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite. Through the
worlds largest beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries are able to
enjoy the products at a rate of 1.9 billion servings a day (Coca-Cola Company, 2014). Reported
in 2013, Coca-Cola had a net incoming of $8.6 billion, and this would not be possible without
the constant and creative marketing concepts the company creates to promote its products. The
successful longevity and recognition the company has in the refreshment industry can also be
largely attributed to the marketing efforts of the Coca-Cola team.
The Open Happiness campaign is just one of the countless operations the company has
implemented. The company launched this global integrated marketing campaign on Jan. 21,
2009. It encouraged people around the world to refresh themselves with a Coke, and continue to
enjoy the simple pleasures of life, all the while aimed to increase the sales of the beverage
(Kumar, 2012). Coca-Cola wanted to remind consumers that even in difficult or stressful times,
Coke is there to offer small moments of fun and refreshment when needed (Kumar, 2012).
Making this campaign come to life on a worldwide scale is where the Silver Anvil award
winning campaign, Coca-Colas Expedition 206 comes into play.
Situation
Coca-Cola faced the problem that the brand did not fully understanding what makes people
happy, and the Open Happiness campaign did not maximally reach young people worldwide.
This is a problem because the Open Happiness campaign is built off the idea that even in the
most difficult, stressful times, there are still opportunities to enjoy the simple pleasures. If Coke
does not understand the multitude of those simple pleasures than how can it say it is always there
to enhance that happiness atmosphere with a refreshment. Coke cannot ignore this problem and
should act. If the company choses to not act and does not connect what makes this public happy
and the beverages, than the future popularity and consumption of the drink could decrease. This
is because the public could start to negatively associating the beverages and its happiness. This
problem should be dealt with sooner rather than later to minimize the excitement deflation
around the Open Happiness campaign.
What did Coca-Cola decide to do? Coke selected three happiness ambassadors, chosen by the
nation, to represent Coke, as they travel to all the 206 countries the company sells to, in just 365
days. These ambassadors had the mission to talk to young people from all different cultures and
find out what makes them happy. Coke called this journey Expedition 206. Throughout their
travels, the ambassadors shared their experiences via social media, such as, Twitter, Facebook,
and YouTube. Coke selected these social avenues to ensure they were engaging with the young
individuals as directly as possible, as the young individuals are already active on these platforms.
This expedition added worldwide meaning to the original Open Happiness campaign and
created a positive ongoing dialogue with important publics globally online.

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Clyde Tuggle, the senior vice president of Global Public Affairs and Communicators for CocaCola kick-started the idea of for Expedition 206; however, Coca-Cola teamed up with the PR
agency, Fast Horse Incorporated, to further the conceptualization of Expedition 206.
It is not evident that Coke and Fast Horse Incorporated performed a SWOT analysis before
implementing its plan; however, some of the following strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats are relevant to this situation. Some strengths of Expedition 206 include: more worldwide
engagement, in-person interaction with consumers (humanize Coke brand), and informative
feedback. On the other hand, some weaknesses of this program include: culture barriers of
different regions, the potential publics disinterest because of long length of program, and it is
the first-time Open Happiness campaign is taking advantage of social media. Some
opportunities of Expedition 206 include hearing perspectives directly from consumers and
increase Coke presence in the countries it does business in. Finally, a threat to the program is
competitors similar kind of programs, such as, Pepsi. Even though Coke did not perform a
formal SWOT analysis, the company recognized the problem and devised a course of action to
solve the problem.
Research
Coca-Cola performed significant research surrounding this idea to understand their target public
and justify the Expedition 206 plan. Coca-Cola had an ongoing consumer loyalty studies that
showed the project team who actively engaged in the companys online programs. The positive
results proved that Coke should continue to create innovative programs to engage consumers
worldwide like Expedition 206 does. These ongoing studies are considered primary research
because Coke is performing the studies itself rather than pulling from others studies. There are
not enough details about the studies structure to determine if results came from a formal or
informal process.
Another part of primary research Fast Horse conducted was feedback on what kind of content
and updates publics would be interested in through the yearlong journey. These publics included
bloggers and targeted media. Having this information helped the ambassadors make sound
decisions about what moments, stories, updates etc. they should document and share with the
Expedition206.com and social media communities.
Coke pulled from the Pew Internet & American Life Project to establish that social networking is
central to teenagers lives and 39 percent of teens online care to share their user-generated
content on these platforms. This piece of research confirms Cokes correct target main publics of
teens and individuals in their twenties who engage in social media. This is because Expedition
206 desires to create that ongoing dialogue among these publics and the ambassadors on social
media platforms. This is categorized as secondary research because Coke did not perform this
research on its own.
Another piece of secondary research supporting this program is from the Coca-Cola Happiness
Institute. The institute investigated factors that lead to happiness and resulted in a connection
between happiness and the smaller things in life. This conclusion came from 3,000 interviews,
which constitutions the research as formal research. This piece of research yet again justifies

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Expedition 206 and the Open Happiness campaigns narrowed to focus on the simple moments
or pleasures in life instead of including grand-scale events and celebrity appearances.
Through these various research avenues, Coke garners a rather solid backing and justification for
the Expedition 206 program. However, Coke could have done more specific research
surrounding the social media platforms the publics in their twenties or teens mostly use or prefer.
This could save the ambassadors time and energy because they are not trying to engage on
platforms that simply dont high interact intensity. Another change in the kind of research could
be more qualitative of how the publics engage in Cokes online programs rather than just the
percentages of likeability. The ambassadors would benefit from this because they how concrete
ideas of how they should reach the target publics. This is different that the feedback Fast Horse
collected because this information can be used to support several of Cokes future online
programs, whereas Fast Horses information is more specific to this program. Even though the
research could be expanded, Coke has sufficient backing to implement the Expedition 206
program.
Planning
Coca-Cola did not specifically state what the goal of the campaign was based on this classs
definition. Instead, Coke said the mission was to determine what makes the public happy and to
document it all online to create positive dialogues with the public. What was just stated is a
paraphrase of the several lines Coke went on to describe what it wanted to accomplish. This is
not a well-crafted goal because of how wordy and double folded it is. The goal should be 9-15
words and allow the audience to understand what the problem is. A stronger goal for Coke could
read as the following: To identify what makes young people happy worldwide and create an
online dialogue around these moments. Even though this goal does not specifically mention the
Open Happiness campaign, the endpoint of engaging with publics about their happiness where
they already are active is clearly stated.
A goal acts as the overarching solution to a problem, but to achieve this broad concept; it needs
to be broken down to SMART objectives. SMART stands for specific, measureable, attainable,
realistic and time bound. An organization has clearer direction to work toward if it uses this
detailed format. Coca-Cola created three communication objectives for this campaign; however,
the objectives did not completely follow this format.
The first objective was, create compelling content for and increase engagement with a worldwide audience of teens and 20-somethings. Coke could have broken this objective into two
separate more specific ones. The objective did not state how much Coke desired to increase
engagement or by when they wanted to accomplish this goal. A better way to construct this
objective could be increase online engagement worldwide 50 percent with individuals in their
teens and twenties by end of December. This objective could be categorized as an outcome
objective because it states what Coke gains from the output. The second objective would be
construct 206 compelling social media posts to engage with young public by end of December.
The number 206 is not pulled out of thin air. It is selected because the ambassadors should create
a new piece of content in each of the countries they visit. This increases the local young people
to have more of an investment in the campaign rather than just tracking the entire journey. The
end of December is when the 365 day journey ends, and it only makes sense that most of the

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engagement occurs when the ambassadors are travelling in full swing. Posting significant content
far after the fact would not have as much excitement around it compared to during the journey
when most publics are engaged and tracking it. This objective can be categorized as an output
objective because it states what Coke delivers to the audience: the compelling posts.
The next communication objective was secure positive global blog and media coverage for a
program that can be activated in each of the countries in which Coca-Cola is sold. First, this
objective is yet again lengthy and wordy like the goal was. A program is not specific,
making this objective easily appropriate for any of Cokes online programs, instead of
Expedition 206 specifically. The objective does not provide a way to measure its success nor
does it put pressure on Coke to accomplish the task in a timely manner. A better way to phrase
this objective could be secure 150 media placements for a total of 100 million positive media
impressions of Expedition 206 in the 206 countries Coke does business by March 2011. This
objective is quantifiable, which allows Coke to easily determine its success or failure. The
objective can be categorized as an outcome objective because it states the positive gain Coke
garners from coordinating the media placements. This deadline is extended passed the
completion of the journey because it is in Cokes best interest for media to bring as attention
around the campaign for as long as possible.
The final objective Coke identifies was, increase brand affinity and brand love among teens and
20-somethings. This objective is OK because it states the public Coke wants to target; however,
is not specific enough for concrete evaluation nor does it provide a deadline for completion. This
objective could be rewritten as increase Coca Colas brand affinity and brand love among
individuals in their teens and twenties by 30 percent by December 2010. Placing a number on
the increase provides the Coke team with a tangible value to strive toward. It also gives Coke the
opportunity to determine the scope it wants this campaign to have, whether it is a small one
percent impact or a huge vet of a 60 percent increase. This is considered an outcome objective
because Coca-Cola is gaining individuals aware and in support of the brand, which could lead to
more sales and a greater Coca-Cola community.
As seen, the objectives were either outcome or output objectives. Coke did not use process
objectives because Coca-Cola was keen on creating an engaging, two-way environment with its
publics throughout the yearlong journey. Coke did not want to just tell the audience about its
beverages and hope they buy them. The brand is more than just the pure profits, but a
community. In conclusion, Coke was on the right track in its creation of objectives, but was just
not as SMART as it could have been. That said the main ideas in its objectives came across.
Breaking the goal down a layer further are the strategies, which are the approaches Coke will
take to accomplish the objectives outlined above. Coca-Colas first strategy to quickly launch the
Expedition 206 with tons of attention could flow from the final objective to increase brand
affinity etc. because it puts Coke on the audiences radar and the love can build from there. The
objective about compelling content and engaging the young public could be accomplished via
the following strategy: engage consumers before the journey begins. The content to engage the
public is not bounded by updates of the journey, but could be excitement and anticipation to the
expedition as a whole. This same objective could be achieved by showing the personalities of
the happiness ambassadors. By doing this, the audience has the ability to learn about the

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ambassadors on a more personal level, and increase the chance of interaction because people are
more likely to interact with people similar to them. The next strategy Coke identified is create
relevant opportunities to tell the story to multiple audiences. The opportunities include travel,
technology, social media, pop culture and business. This helps accomplish the compelling
content objective because not every twenty-something has the same interests. However, if Coke
can share the expedition experience with the public through different angles and industries, the
chance of increased engagement is higher. The final strategy Coca-Cola desired to enact is
leverage Coca-Colas global marketing and communication teams. This approach is imperative
in reaching the anticipated number of media placements and impressions stated in the third
objective. This is because if a discussed media placement does not happen when it is originally
scheduled, the team is specifically assigned to resolve the issue. In the various locations, the
communication and marketing teams or most knowledge about which media outlets will garner
the most attention and impressions. It is evident that Coca-Cola thoroughly devised strategies to
accomplish the main objectives.
Up until this point, the term public has been thrown around in various sentences; however, not it
is not outwardly stated who the priority publics of the Expedition 206 campaign are. The case
claims teens and 20-somethings who are active in social media and residents of the countries
and cities Cokes team of happiness ambassadors would visit as the core publics. These two
groups is a rather broad category as 13-29 year old individuals mostly likely are in extremely
different points in their life and are using social media in drastically different ways. The groups
are also assuming that the individuals have consistent access to the Internet to engage in the
online dialogue and the disposable funds to purchase the beverages. Coke did not specify any
demographic information, as categories such as race and socio-economic class would vary in the
206 countries the happiness ambassadors travelled. Coke could have specified which social
media platforms the young individuals needed to be active on because it would narrow the gap
between where Coke puts its effort and where the individuals are naturally engaging. Regardless
of the specificities, Coke desired to reach the younger aged individuals who actively participated
on social media. Coke intended to go straight to the publics via social media rather than
attempting to get the publics to make the individual and purposeful effort to seek out the
campaign. The publics listed above are not the only publics Coca-Cola targeted for this
campaign and all of the publics could be organized into primary, secondary and intervening
publics as seen below:
Primary: male and female teens and 20-somethings who are active on social
media of all races, residents of the 206 countries the ambassadors will travel
to, Coca-Cola brand lovers
Secondary: teens and 20-somethings residing community, shareholders
Intervening: media community and outlets, bloggers, 206 countries influential
and opinionated leaders (ex. celebrities and political figures), Associated Press
Coca-Cola did a great job connecting with its target public as it gave them a sense of ownership
right from the beginning. Coke did this by involving the public in the selection of the happiness
ambassadors. Being able to vote on who would be the main entities of the campaign got the
publics invested early and created a reason for them to follow the people they now seem
connected with through the entire years journey. The final candidates reflected the diversity of
Cokes global audience increasing the chance the target public could resonate with.

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The director of Coca-Colas Office of Digital Communication and Social Media, Adam Brown,
said its not about having the Coca-Cola brand first and foremost, center of the screen. Its about
telling the story that involves Coca-Cola, that involves the attributes of what Coca-Cola is about,
optimism and joy. This backs the overall goal of Expedition 206 centered on finding out what
makes the publics happy, not pushing sales of the beverages. It is the ideology that the publics
will become invested in the culture and community of the brand, and then will want to support
that brand by purchasing the beverage. In this way, the program does more to connect the
priority public with the Coca-Cola brand rather than the tangible beverages.
Implementation
Now that the groundwork has been laid out; it is time to understand what Coke specifically did in
this program-what did the team execute. Coke had three phases to the campaign. The first phase
was the program launch and voting kick-off, where Cokes communication and marketing
team reviewed the goals and strategies. Then, Fast Horse created a global activation toolkit
including all key messaging, and social media content templates and guidelines. On Oct. 21,
2009, Coke officially released Expedition 206, and the worldwide publics voting on happiness
ambassadors began. The team uploaded a press release and an initial photo gallery to the online
newsroom, the same morning Associate Presss story circulated news outlets worldwide. At this
point, Expedition 206 had lots of buzz around it and the ambassador pool was narrowed down to
nine. The ownership aspect of the selection process was definitely unique to this campaign, and
well played, because, like previously said, it got the publics invested in the ambassadors. The
marketing and communication teams review was also a smart precaution Coke took. This
ensured that individuals were on command to respond to any potential problems and believed in
the overall program.
The second phase was the announcement of winners, where Coke selected the final three
happiness ambassadors, and continued to build the excitement and awareness of program
before the Jan. 1, 2010 departure. Antonio Santiago, Kelly Ferris and Tony Martin, the
happiness ambassadors, were announced at the Happiness Ambassador Training Camp, in
Atlanta. At the event, they had a crash course on media engagement, ate exotic foods, and
participated in a travel-themed obstacle course. Hosting the camp around Coca-Colas
headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia helped emphasis that Coca-Cola is highly invested in this
program and is proud of its roots. Tons of media outlets attended the event, and shared videos
and photos of the event. Two large media sources present included Mashable.com and
JYSK.com. The event was certainly visually appealing to the media. It was also a good
opportunity to collect B-roll and other media materials to accompany the typical components of a
press kit. The event was interactive and definitely added to the anticipation of the long journey.
The smartest thing about the event was that it was strategically in conjunction with global CocaCola investor event. This is because it increased Expedition 206s media exposure to high-profile
business reporters. After the event, the three participated in a satellite media tour via Twitter,
phone and Skype, garnering so much attention, they arrived home as nearly celebrities. The case
did not mention of the social media engagement the ambassadors had while on the satellite tour,
which could have expanded the scope even further. Coke made certain that the announcement of
this journey was fun, full of joy and one to remember.

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The third, and final phase, of this program was the expedition that kicked off in Madrid, Spain,
which is home of the Coca-Cola Happiness Institute- certainly not a coincidence. From Day 1,
Coke wanted to be clear the programs theme was happiness worldwide. It is not the cleverest
theme, but it is the simple and one majority in the target public age range could resonate with.
Coke could have been a little more imaginative in its theme, but instead the company stuck with
the strong pillars, optimism and enjoyment, it prides itself on.
Back to the actual actions of phase three, the activation toolkit was imperative in the expeditions
success. The toolkit enhanced excitement of travels, assisted local markets and provided the
ambassadors media material templates. It acted as a regular guide of best practices for the
journey, such as, assisting in determination of which Coke bottles the ambassadors should
distribute at each country. These were not just regular Coke bottles; these were one-of-a-kind
bottles specially decorated to celebrate simple moments of happiness in that country. The
specialty of this act creatively ties the public back to Cokes product.
Fast Horse and Coke maintained a heavily active Twitter account, @x206hp, which aided media
outlets regarding the journey. The active ambassadors maintained the @206 Twitter, Facebook,
Flickr and YouTube accounts as they posted pictures, shared updates on their whereabouts and
interactions with the locals. This social media engagement is the core of Expedition 206s
success as the ambassadors shared directly onto platforms the audience is present on. The use of
social media was not the creative portion of this phase. To keep up with such robust quality
content while travelling such a journey is what makes this a noteworthy accomplishment.
A compelling component of the journey was some of the actual stops themselves. Coke thought
to take advantage of its business sponsorship ventures by having the happiness ambassadors
take part in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, FIFA World Cup in South Africa, and the
World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. These are significant events reaching a vast audience, and to
bring Expedition 206 to these events increased to potential reach of this campaign as well.
Creativity of the campaign does not always have to be defined by the actions. The pure timing
and coordinating of this collaboration exemplified creativity just as much as a show-stopping
exhibit.
The journeys excitement did not end when the journey ended, as there was a live webcast Q&A
connecting the ambassadors and publics, which created another wave of global media coverage.
A Q&A after an event is pretty common, but including it in this campaign is unique because it
added yet another outlet for the publics to engage with the happiness ambassadors.
The case makes it evident that Coke went to great lengths to put together a visually appealing
release, garner media attention, coordinate webcasts and satellite tours etc.; however, the case
fails to mention the expenses of this grandness. Rightfully so, the campaign emphasizes the
ambassadors visiting all 206 countries Coca-Cola does business in, but how much were the
flights, hotels, food and other necessities for this yearlong travel? How much did it cost to have
the media outlets participation? The training camp event could not have been cheap. The case
could have intentionally excluded these details to emphasize the campaigns huge impact while
avoiding drawing attention to the large financial risk executing the campaign was. Coke pushed
the limits on using social media as a main source of engagement with its public. Coca-Cola

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pulled out all the stops for this epic yearlong journey to find out what makes its target public
happy. This is certainly exemplified in the three phases above; however, the costs associated
with this big endeavor could have been more transparent.
Evaulation/Results
Coca-Cola could not just plan all these components of the campaign, execute them and just move
onto the next campaign venture. Coca-Cola needed to evaluate its efforts and determine if all was
worth it. What did the brand gain from Expedition 206? Was Expedition 206 a success or
failure? Coke quantifiably measured its first objective, create compelling content for and
increase engagement with teens and 20-somethings worldwide. It compared the number of page
views and time spent on page before and after the launch. This had a positive result of nearly
9,000 page views with an average of 6.5 minutes spent viewing the site. Coke numerically
determined objective one a success as it garnered more than 900 blog posts online news stories
about the expedition. Coke successfully reached a worldwide audience seen through 75 percent
of voters being from outside the US. As far as social engagement, Coke also based its success on
the numbers, specifically the number of views, clicks, replies and retweets. This is backed by the
research that confirmed the teens and 20-somethings are actively engaged in social media.
The seven Promoted Tweets sent from @x206 received 124, 105 global views and more than
4,300 clicks, retweets and replies, which is high for online advertising. A cost-benefit analysis
demonstrated that public engagement outweighed the 24 cents each engagement cost. 3,000
people in 112 different countries viewed the live webcast of the ambassadors at the end of the
expedition. Finally, Coke saw significant increases in social media engagement in China, with
one billion participants, and in New Zealand, where Cokes Facebook page doubled in fans
during the month the ambassadors visited. As demonstrated above, Coke successfully
accomplished its first objective based on solid numbers from before and after the campaign,
which is considered an outcome measurement.
Coca-Cola had success in accomplishing its second objective to secure positive global blog and
media coverage for a program that can be activated in each country. The measurement of this
objective looks at what difference was made, not what Coke did; therefore, it looks at outcomes.
More than 400 media outlets covered the journey before it even started. The media outlets
included, but were not limited to, BBC, Associated Press, Telemundo, Fox Business News, and
the LA Times. The program resulted in more than 4,300 media stories and 755 media
impressions. The high numbers could indicate success in obtaining media coverage; however, the
initial objective specified positive coverage. Coke should have gathered more qualitative results,
such as positive quotes from reporters about the campaigns components to say with 100 percent
confidence that it accomplished this objective. This is because Coke did not have specific
research supporting the result measures. This specificity is not to discount the enormous attention
Expedition 206 garnered in its duration. It is just an observation because 755 impressions is no
little feat.
Cokes final objective was to increase brand affinity and brand love among teens and 20somethings. The success measurement of this objective looks at the outcomes and is backed by
Cokes research. The research demonstrates that increased brand engagement renders increased
product sales. The sales increased 4 percent at the end of 2009, which aligns with phase one and

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two. Sales rose again during the journey, and specifically in the China market by 6 percent in
2010. Beyond the quantifiable measurements, the campaigns success was recognized through
industry awards. The expedition earned TravelComs Innovator of the Year award, and the
Campaign of the Month award by PR Week. Coke quantified the brand love through the
number of visitors to Expedition206.com, who posted comments, interacted with the happiness
ambassadors, and shared the page with their friends. The website had a total 3,500 visitors.
Coke also determined Expedition 206 as an extremely visible and supported non-advertising
program through the comments the media outlets shared. Through the quantitative and
qualitative measurements, Coke can positive say it achieved its third objective.
Above proves that Coca-Cola achieved the three objectives it originally outlined. These
objectives were devised to breakdown the broader aspiration that is the goal. According to Coke,
the goal was to find out what makes teens and 20-somethings happy worldwide. The vast social
media engagement documenting what makes people happy in the 206 countries proves the
campaign resulted in answers to the question what makes the target public happy? There was a
change in interest as teens and 20-somethings started to take more of an interest in the Open
Happiness initiative Coca-Cola previously developed. The change in behavior is that teens and
20-somethings interacted with individuals on a more global scale. That said, Coca-Cola proved
sufficient measurement tactics to evaluate the success of its campaign and did in fact succeed.
My Perspective
Coca-Colas approach to solving this problem demonstrated to me the importance of
empowering the public, so they feel invested in the program. It is much harder to expect the
same engagement and program attention when the organization is just putting out statistics or
information. An organization also needs to fully understand its target public and how best to
reach them. The same tactics cannot be applied to different campaigns. Coca-Cola recognized
the teens and 20-somethings are already on social media; it did not have to pull teeth to get the
publics attention, instead it went straight to where the public was active.
Coca-Colas thorough preparation before the campaign launch was essential the campaigns
success and garnered the PR industrys attention; however was not entirely, what granted them
the Silver Anvil Award. The award-winning component of this campaign was the vast social
media engagement worldwide, and how visible that engagement was. The campaign was about
hearing all opinions about what makes the public happy- virtually and in-person in the countries.
Coca-Cola took a universal concept of happiness and made it a worldwide phenomenon to
celebrate.
The campaign was about happiness and not about selling the beverages, but still had a positive
effect on the sales. This is something that both surprised me and impressed me at the same time.
It surprised me how little Coke integrated the products into the campaign, and instead focused on
learning about the publics and how Coke can add to the simple pleasures in life. Another thing
that surprised me was how much attention Expedition 206 got before the journey even started. I
would definitely credit this to the marketing and communications team. I was also impressed that
Coke thought to have two Twitter accounts: one that the active happiness ambassadors ran
from the streets, and then one from the office. This was a good precaution for if the ambassadors
ran into complications and did not have access to social media for a few days. At that point, the

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office Twitter could keep the engagement alive. From other PR campaigns, I have seen the teams
focus on getting coverage of the event itself and post-event coverage, but Coca-Colas team went
one set further and got pre-event coverage to create anticipation.
Even though there was tons of media attention before departure, I think Coke could have
connected more to the target publics in United States and Spain, the launching destination. The
happiness ambassadors did a virtual tour state side; however, the tour could have been
expanded to Spain, where the ambassadors meet people in person in a bon voyage atmosphere.
During the journey, Coke could have incentivized social media engagement to increase teens and
20-somethings desire to engage. This generation is much more motivated when they have a
chance of winning a prize. The prizes did not have to be expensive; they could have just been an
exclusive Expedition 206 t-shirt or free case of Coke. This could have been done through a
contest, such as, the first 100 people to tweet at the ambassadors when they entered a new
country with #Expedition206 could win a customized Expedition 206 backpack. The final
suggestion I have for Coke is to drive the Expedition 206s websites traffic back to other Coke
endeavors, or the company website after the Q&A webcast, so that there is not such a sudden end
to such a big journey. The suddenness left the followers without significant closure or next steps.
There are not many updates about what the happiness ambassadors are currently doing or how
they are representing the brand if in fact they still are. On the social media front, Coca-Cola has
moved onto different projects and the @206 accounts are not very active.
This program was a one time event and I do no think it would have as much traffic or
engagement if done again. However, the happiness ambassadors are nearly celebrities, at this
point, and Coke should definitely take advantage of that. Coke could market a mini tour of the
ambassadors saying we are bringing Expedition 206 to the states with Expedition 50. This
could drive national unity around the product. To make this tour more unique, the ambassadors
would be on the hunt for how Americans think to make others happy, instead of being all about
their own happiness.
Even though the campaign did not have much related active after the fact, the entire program was
well thought out and executed. Coca-Cola drove home its desire to learn what makes its target
publics happy, instead of just pushing the beverage on people. The brand expanded its reach,
which positively effected sales. From country to country, social media platform to another, the
message and tone was cohesive. Through the critic above, it is evident that though the campaign
could use some improvements, just like anything in life, the Expedition 206 campaign is well
deserving of the Silver Anvil Award and recognition. Expedition 206 made a positive impact and
Coca-Colas team and efforts are rightfully acknowledged.

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References
Coca-Cola At A Glance: KO101 Video and Infographic. (2014, January 1). Retrieved March 11,
2015, from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/infographic-coca-cola-at-aglance
Coca-Colas Expedition 206. (2011). PRSA.6BE-1102C07.
Grove, J. (2009, October 21). Coca-Cola's Social Media Happiness Ambassadors to Visit 206
Countries. Retrieved March 11, 2015, from
http://mashable.com/2009/10/21/expedition206/
Kumar, A. (2002, July 5). Open Happiness' and Enjoy Life's Simple Pleasures With Coca-Cola.
Retrieved March 11, 2015, from http://www.slideshare.net/AjayKumar226/openhappiness
Parikh, N. (2009, October 21). Expedition 206: Coca-Colas Happiness Ambassadors Spread the
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