How Coca-Cola Creations Wrote a Love Letter to K-Pop Fans
The world’s biggest pop brand and the world’s biggest pop movement are mixing it up for a collaboration that’s full of fizz and puts fans at the heart. K-Wave Zero Sugar is a ‘love letter to K-Pop fans’ according to Oana Vlad, senior director, global strategy at The Coca-Cola Company. They’ve teamed up with three of the hottest idol groups on the planet, Stray Kids, ITZY, and NMIXX, as well as the founder of JYP Entertainment, J.Y. Park, to create a new K-Pop track, ‘Like Magic’.
It’s the soundtrack to a brand new K-Pop-inspired Coca-Cola Zero Sugar flavour, that brings together Korean flavours and the energy of K-Pop. This week they’ve launched a new AI music video experience that will allow fans to take part in the fun - and later this year, the campaign will culminate in a huge K-Wave concert.
LBB’s Laura Swinton caught up with Oana to find out more.
LBB> Is this the first time that Coca-Cola has been involved in the world of K-Pop?
Oana> Last year we had a partnership with New Jeans for Coca-Cola Zero Sugar. We are also working on some exciting things with them as part of our Coca-Cola Zero ‘Taste that Speaks for Itself’ campaign. There’s one TV spot where the bottles actually sing ‘It’s gonna be me’, so we actually have a version of that with New Jeans singing an iconic Korean song. In short, no, it is not the first time that we’ve really been inspired by the K-Pop world, but in this case I think it’s about a unique partnership that Creations allows, ranging from product to experience to new music.
LBB> There’s a lot going on in this campaign but at the heart of it, you’ve got that product. Where does the Coca-Cola team start when it comes to translating something as lively as K-Pop into a Coca-Cola flavour?
Oana> Well, we really have the best team of scientists - and they’re also highly creative! They have a very unique process for each creation. We actually worked very, very closely together from day zero. So they’re aware and they’re involved in the insights and the concepting, and they really follow a unique process on their end of ideation, but also immersion. So in this case, they immersed themselves in Korean foods, spices and aromas. They also listened to K-Pop and were inspired by the energy and the vibrancy of the music and culture, and combined that with thinking about flavours that are found more traditionally in Korea.
They’ve landed on this formula which I think is one of the brighter and more energetic that we’ve had, which is also aligned with the unique packaging design as well. You see the Korean spencerian script light up from a lightbox. Everything is meant to evoke energy and vibrancy, from the product itself to the design. And then of course there are the experiences. If you’ve listened to the song, you definitely pick up a unique, youthful energy as well.
LBB> K-Pop fans are known for being some of the most passionate in the world. What sort of insights did you have about the K-Pop fandom and how did that inform how you approached the project?
Oana> I would say this project, from our point of view, is a love letter to the fans. We have been travelling to South Korea for quite a bit of time now and had several immersions into the world of K-Pop.
We were very inspired by experiencing it firsthand. As always, when we have these types of projects we do a lot of research; we try to learn as much as possible to ensure that we do it in a very authentic way. The project lead, who is the Coke lead in Korea, is probably one of the biggest K-Pop fans ever. It was easy to stay authentic because she really feels it.
LBB> We’ve seen there is also an AI-driven music video experience for fans - why was it important to allow fans to be able to put themselves into the frame?
Oana> What was really important to us, as with all creations, is that the experiences both in the physical world and digital worlds are participatory and people can engage in them no matter where they are. In this case, it wasn’t just about partnering with JYP to create amazing, new music and new content - we also wanted to make sure that it’s a unique experience for fans. So, what better way than to really allow fans to customise an iconic piece of content and piece of music?
Through AI, they’ll be able to create avatars and insert them into the video, as well as other Easter eggs. There can be an infinite amount of customisations so people can feel more connected and closer to the idols they love. We’re really excited that will be dropping and opening up on March 6th on the Coke Creations microsites. Hopefully people will enjoy this as much as we did making it.
LBB> This culminates in a big concert. Why was it important to have that big celebratory element to it?
Oana> It’s about the music, right? Without the music, none of the excitement and none of the communities would exist. This gives us a unique opportunity. With all Creations, there is the digital piece, but at the end of the day, moments are made special by experiencing them in real life as well. So, for us, both of those components are important. It seemed just natural that we would want to bring people together to experience the music and vibrancy, and it seemed like a great opportunity to do something a little later in the programme. It’s a great recap and celebration.
LBB> What have been the most satisfying or interesting parts of pulling this whole thing together for you?
Oana> Personally, this has definitely been one of my favourite projects to work on because it’s given all of us an opportunity to immerse ourselves in a really beautiful culture. We had a launch event a couple of weeks ago and you could just feel the energy and passion in the room - that was amazing. But of course, just the opportunity to leverage the scale of Coca-Cola to highlight a part of the world and its culture is really exciting. Uniting with something that was born really locally and bubbled up with a global, iconic brand to do something unique is really, really exciting.
