Coca-Cola is undoubtedly one of the biggest brands in the world. They managed to turn a carbonated drink into a multinational corporation and develop an unparalleled global reach. With many notable beverage brands under their umbrella, Coca-Cola branched out and used its famous name to make a difference in the world by utilizing genius marketing strategies to increase awareness and consumer engagement.
In 2018, Coca-Cola was among the seven leading partners of the Fifa World Cup. Besides sponsoring the tournament held in Russia, they wanted to bring the excitement to millions of fans around the world who couldn’t be there in person. After the astronomical growth of AR and VR technology, Coca-Cola hoped to find a way to incorporate it into their global tour before the World Cup. Coca-Cola were led into the trusted hands of ByondXR, who created a web-based VR experience offering a 360-degree tour of the unique branded airplane used to carry the trophy around the world. Using both augmented reality and virtual reality technology, fans could access content from the plane through any device, from anywhere in the world.
Around the experience, legendary stories of World Cup history were brought to life, social content from players, commentators, and teams were displayed on a live feed and the official FIFA World Cup music could be streamed through speakers. Eran Galil added, “It’s a fantastic way to access the trophy and connect to the Coca-Cola brand, you feel like you’re there.”
One of the most exciting elements of the platform was the interactive map, managed by the Coca-Cola team. Video content and photos produced by Coca-Cola in all different cities could be uploaded in real-time so fans could jump into the experience and feel like they were a physical presence in the tour. Tony Francis, global digital lead, FIFA World Cup, Coca-Cola added, “The core of our digital and social campaign has been to develop content and capabilities to help enable the storytelling across the entire FIFA World Cup campaign, this experience allows us to do that all the way through the final whistle.
Ultimately, the FIFA World Cup is about bringing people together from all walks of life who have a common interest in football. Coca-Cola was able to take this concept to the next level through this interactive experience. The program ran for six months and recorded soaring figures of engagement as fans immersed themselves in all aspects of content surrounding the FIFA World Cup.
