In recent years, the diet soft drink category has been struggling to recruit young, fickle male users. As one of the newer entrants into the category, Coke Zero needed a fresh idea with lifestyle relevance to engage this target audience in a memorable way. The agency was tasked to build upon the existing "Make It Possible" global platform for Coke Zero, while also leveraging its partnerships in hockey with athletes and NHL arenas.
The bull's-eye target was men 18 to 24, a time where they want to make the most of their youth. They love one-upping their friends with tales of their achievements, conquests and moments of glory.
This combined with the target's passion for sports led to the big idea: celebrate legendary sporting stories. But instead of writing stories, the brand would find real stories that the target was sharing online and use celebrity athletes to re-create them in a larger-than-life way and from a different angle – not the achievement itself but the moment that made it possible. A moment called "Moment Zero."
The brand used social media to search for everyday guys already sharing amazing stories, and reached out and offered to take their story to the next level by immortalizing it on film.
The first "Moment Zero" film focused on Kevin "Wheels" Wheeler. NHL star Jordan Eberle was enlisted to play him in a three-minute re-enactment of Wheeler's moment of glory. It also featured the first-ever ad cameos by well-known TSN broadcasters Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole to help breakthrough.
Two weeks prior to the video's launch, the agency built the myth around Kevin Wheeler by leveraging NHL team partnerships, social media channels, 15-second teaser spots and relationships with TSN sports personalities. The sports community got behind the social media buzz, NHL players participated on Twitter and even EA sports got into the fun promising to put this legend on their next game release cover.
On launch day, Coke Zero turned Kevin Wheeler into a legend by unveiling his three-minute film during the NHL Playoffs before promoting it live on TSN and YouTube for all to witness Kevin Wheeler's Moment Zero. This set the tone for the target audience to submit for their chance to be the hero of the next two #MomentZero spots.
The second ad, starring Steven Stamkos, focused on a story about a father coach who trades his son to another team. It brought back Jordan Eberle as Kevin Wheeler, the other half of the trade. The TSN partnership was continued with a cameo from Bob McKenzie, as a Zamboni driver who delivers the trade analysis.
The third spot, also featuring Steven Stamkos, focused on the story of a Canadian amateur hockey player, Brian Clarke, who had to use figure skates during a game. The film was released online through social media during the winter Olympics when talk about Canada's hockey and figure skating athletes were at its peak, capitalizing on the buzz of the games.
Two weeks prior to launch, the teaser campaign built up the mystique about Kevin Wheeler. It intrigued close to every single target audience male in the country (1.5 million of the target) with over six million impressions.
The first film's launch made an immediate impact. After just a month, it had over 1.5 million views. The video's popularity earned extensive media coverage on SportsCentre, the Wall Street Journal and Canada AM, to name a few. Social media was abuzz with mentions of @Coke_CA on Twitter increasing 989% amongst the target. The #MomentZero hashtag was engaged five times that of the North American CPG benchmark (15% vs. 3%).
The second film quickly earned over 1.2 million views and was the most-watched Canadian ad on YouTube for the month of October. Considering the spot launched Oct. 23, it quickly got the attention of our target.
As a campaign, the three films have earned over six million media impressions, have garnered over 3.1 million views, with over 75% of views coming from the core target, resulting in a Facebook fan growth of 5.5% and a 25% increase in Twitter followers.