I worked across Coca-Cola globally for over a decade – from TV commercials to out-of-home, but a couple of activations stood out as especially fun.
A bottle that flipped the ritual of drinking Coke on its head.
Everyone knows the iconic psssst! when you crack it open – it’s the sound of happiness. We turned that simple action into a celebration of the life and sound of happiness in Tokyo.
With DJ/inventor Jun Fujiwara, we built a bottle that captured real-world sounds – traffic, laughter, street life, your voice – and remixed them into one-of-a-kind tracks. It wasn’t just packaging. It was a recording device. A beatmaker. A creative portal.
Suddenly, Coke wasn’t just refreshing – it was expressive.
It lived in hands, ears, and on social as ringtones, remixed videos, and shareable loops.
A product built on happiness became a celebrate the happiness of an entire cities varying cultures.
The activation was pure joy to work on – and picked up recognition at Clio and The One Show in making “Open Happiness” come to life in the sound of the city.
Share a White Christmas was more than a holiday stunt – it was a live, emotional exchange between two corners of the world that would never otherwise meet. One’s buried in snow, the other’s sweating in shorts.
And we used that contrast to create connection.
We built two vending machines – one in snowy Rovaniemi, Finland, and one in sunny, tropical Singapore. Linked in real time, so when someone in Finland scooped snow and dropped it in their machine, it triggered a gentle snowfall in Singapore. On the other side of the world, people felt the magic – literally falling on their hands.
Heart-warming. Joyful. Quietly magical. No voiceovers, no big sell. Just real people sharing wonder across climates and cultures.
Every snowflake became a message:
“I see you. Let’s share something special.”
The execution was tactile, unexpected, and completely on-brand. Coca-Cola didn’t just talk about “Open Happiness” – it delivered it, live, between strangers. A universal, human moment made possible by simple tech and a whole lot of heart.
For Coca-Cola It’s not a vending machine its a means to deliver happiness, and for a brief second – it snowed where it never could.
