The latest TVC of Coke India’s Share-A-Coke summer campaign has two new elements: the medley of Ranbir Kapoor and Bollywood songs and a new hashtag Say it With Coke. The uncanny similarity with Pepsi’s 2016 campaign name (#SayitWithPepsi) during the introduction of their emoji-themed packaging cannot be overlooked.
Coming back to the Coke India’s first ad spot of 2019, it opens up with Bollywood actor Paresh Rawal who plays a strict landlord, entering his tenant’s (played by Kapoor) place asking for the rent. Kapoor hands him the cheque and offers him a Coke when Rawal is about to leave. Confused, Rawal questions the gesture. Kapoor explains how he (Rawal), as a landlord, has never let any of his moves go unnoticed. Explaining this thought, he reveals the label of the Coke bottle which says ‘Jaaddoo Teri Nazar’, and the popular Bollywood number plays in the background. Similarly, 140 songs in five Indian languages have made their way on the Coke bottles. Towards the end, we get a glimpse of few other popular tracks like ‘Swag Se Swagat’ and ‘Tu Mera Hero’ in Devnagri script (on the bottle label).
Created by McCann Worldgroup India, the 45-second TVC offers a humorous take on the tenant-landlord relationship with the Bollywood romantic number ‘Jaddoo Teri Nazar’ lending an interesting twist to it. As a result, we found the ad spot innovative and relatable (like all the campaign’s previous TVCs). Adding star power (as Kapoor is Coke India’s latest brand ambassador) to an already popular campaign will give the multinational beverage brand an edge over its competition.
It’s interesting to note that the Bollywood actor was earlier the face of its rival brand Pepsi since 2008. Kapoor happens to be a common link on more than one instance. During his stint with Pepsi the latter had also swapped their brand labels with emojis, as part of their 2016 #PepsiMoji campaign in India, an extension of their global ‘Say it with Pepsi’ campaign.
Hence, if Pepsi used the global language of emojis to spark connections among youth Coke India chose relationships like Granddad (with descriptors) and Bollywood music on their labels. Whether it’s Ranbir Kapoor, the hashtag #SayitWith…, putting relationship logos or emojis on bottle labels (read personalisation), the striking resemblance in the strategies of two rival brands are hard to miss.
This is not Share-A-Coke’s first brush with Bollywood. Earlier they had brought in actor Ayushmann Khurrana for their Diwali campaign with the catch phrase ‘Iss Diwali, Har Dil Bola Tere Naam Ki Coca-Cola.’ It inspired consumers to make the festival of lights special for someone.
The global campaign Share-A-Coke was brought to India only last year where they used the power of relationships to connect to the Indian consumer. The TVCs and the packaging of bottle labels met with positive reception, courtesy its engaging storytelling.
