Coca Cola hired 5 design groups to “create and share a vision of optimism”. The result: a strategic swirl of graphics forged by some fashionable designers. Included are The Designers Republic (U.K.), Lobo (Brazil), MK12 (U.S.A.), Rex & Tennant McKay (South Africa) and Caviar (Japan). The project dubbed “M5″, will serve as visual branding of its bottle to make a deeper connection to a young hip and creative audience. An audience likely to be defined through the music of “The Flaming Lips, Guided by Voices, Fischerspooner, Citizen Bird and Towa Te.” The marketing campaign incorporated the music from these bands in special music videos, produced by the above mentioned designers. The exciting bottle designs won’t be found everywhere, they will only be available at “the world’s most exclusive lounges and clubs.”

Pretty Strategic
In a marketing environment that is saturated with brands, connecting through a target audience’s culture and values is a strategy that underpins many effective marketing campaigns. Ian Anderson, of The Designers Republic says, “The biggest challenge facing companies today is effectively communicating with their market. For big brands like Coke, blanket advertising is no longer an option: it’s both expensive and ineffective.” Communicating to a specific audience requires knowing the appropriate visual language that is meaningful to them. To effectively communicate deep into a cultural group takes some good research, fortunately the 5 design groups that contributed already had the knowledge and know-how to design for this fashionable target. You can say, they were the right designers for the job.

It’s Eye Candy
Water, Sugar, Caffeine etc. – all that good stuff (right). Ingredients that are far from being a good source of nutrition. In fact, the bottle designs are an excellent reflection of what is inside this beverage. An honest harmony between the outside and the inside of this product edition. The vision from each design group surprising looks similar in character, they all look rather psychedelic and playful– yet are subtly different. The various icons and symbols (butterfly, flower, heart) mixed with some abstract graphic treatments and high energy color create some unity among the 5 designs. Overall, pretty fun.

The Cost of Loyalty
Will the bottle graphics alone create an overwhelming demand for the beverage? probably not. If you already enjoy Coke, then this will be a pleasant surprise from a brand that just wants to connect with you. Tell you that they are thinking about the joys in life, the excitement and optimism that can exist (in a world plagued by terrorism and global environmental issues). This burst of optimism provided by the bottles may just be enough of a connection to deepen your loyalty – that is success. Will their desired outcome be achieved with the power of design? We will keep an eye on the results, if they are available.

For a good view of the bottles go to the special site. Here you will find links to the design groups as well as the videos created.

Simply, a visual delight. When I first saw this campaign as a spread in Time magazine, i awoke from the flipping sound of pages turning. An excellent example of a visual language “breaking through the clutter”. Although, if you take a look at the visual composition, one may describe the design as clutter itself. But there is mastery here. These assemblages are a marvel to look at, expressing the creative power behind the Microsoft operating system. Images flow into graphics composed with a poetic balance, yet it feels like it was created with “chance operations”.

There is a series of these ads. At this point i have only seen four of them. There must be more and there are. The series of ads cover various possibilities that “windows” brings to computer users.

Some details. The typographic choice for the headline “Start Something…” vary in execution. Sometimes you’ll see it in writen in black ink, hand made, or hand drawn letterforms techniques that create a feeling of immediacy. This adds a playfull and accessible contrast to the super coloured, digital assemblages that burst off the pages.

What is it communicating? in general it seems that: Windows XP opens a world to explore and experience. The modification of “Start Something…”, begins the journey into the extensive applications of the operating system. The campaign integration in other media is extensive. The campaign is animated on tv, print and the web. The web site extends the “Start Something…” into things like: music, sports, cooking etc.

The press release states: “Using fresh, imaginative advertising, retail executions, online activities and more, the 15-month campaign celebrates the countless possibilities for Windows to bring what people are passionate about to life using the hundreds of thousands of software applications and devices that work with Microsoft® Windows XP.” If you manage to consume most of the ads in all the media, in around 15 months or so, i think we will get the entire vision.

Design credit is due to its’ agency, McCann Erickson. Although, it is not clear who actually did the design, meaning the designer or illustrator.

A spirit of global community, targeted to teens. With a trendy, simplistic visual language, this beverage brand concept is an idea that stretches into a “value-based” approach to connecting to its target.

The product challenge can be articulated from a statement from Pepsi, “after years of being kept apart on separate shelves of the refrigerator, Full Flavor and One Calorie are now living in complete harmony inside Pepsi ONE — the drink that unites the taste of regular cola with all the things you like about diet cola. Togetherness is better than apartness. Oneify.”

It was a refreshing to see a brand concept that had some synergy with the whole package - the brand name, campaign visuals and messaging - definitatly focused thinking going on here. It seems obvious that the signs and signifiers presented have been carfully thought through.

The chain of characters is an interesting twist, analogous to the members of the United Nations, this unique mix of icons define and demonstrate the embrace of random characters found within culture. In someways, this campaign is familiar to BENETON’s diversity concept, but the Pepsi concept is not so international and much more fun.

http://www.oneify.com