By Nicole Rivard
Whether or not the Geico caveman will make it in primetime this fall remains to be seen. But the workers inside Coca Cola’s Happiness Factory, whom audiences first met in 2006 in a TV spot, have become movie stars. Earlier this month, “Happiness Factory–The Movie” was unveiled at an online global premiere event in virtual world Second Life, kicking off phase two of the “Coke Side of Life” campaign.
In the original TV spot, directed by Todd Mueller and Kylie Matulick of Psyop, New York, via Wieden + Kennedy, Amsterdam, audiences were taken deep inside a Coca-Cola vending machine, revealing a magical, fantasy world replete with whimsical animated characters all dedicated to dispensing a cold cool bottle of Coke.
In the movie, available at http://www.coca-cola.com/HF/index.jsp and again helmed by Mueller and Matulick via W+K Amsterdam, it is just another happy day in the Happiness Factory. The Chinoinks are busily dispensing Coke, the Cappers are capping and the Kissy Puppies are spreading love around the factory when suddenly disaster strikes. The alarm bells ring, the red light flashes and the unthinkable happens–the “Happiness Factory” runs out of Coke.
The movie shows the adventures of a heroic factory worker as he embarks on a quest to replenish the Coke, putting the happiness back in the “Happiness Factory” to get it up and running again.
Watching the three-and-a-half-minute film at the exclusive online gala event was an international crowd of nearly 100 avatars dressed in red carpet fashions, including singer Avril Lavigne and reporters from more than 16 countries worldwide.
Marc Mathieu, senior VP, global brand marketing and creative excellence, The Coca-Cola Company, and host of the premiere event said, “Everything about this campaign takes its lead from the entertainment industry–from the movie-style trailers to the authentically designed movie posters to the promotional packaging. It was only fitting that for our launch we chose a full-fledged movie ‘premiere’.”
Since launching in 2006, the original “Happiness Factory” has gone on to become the highest rated global spot The Coca-Cola Company has ever tested. Now airing in more than 100 countries, the ad has received numerous advertising industry accolades, winning a Silver Lion at the 2007 Cannes advertising awards, the Grand Prix Gold Prize at the 2006 Epica Awards and most recently a nomination for a primetime commercial Emmy in the United States.
The launch of the sequel marks the next phase in the award-winning “Coke Side of Life” campaign, which is continuing to drive Coca-Cola trademark brands to perform at their best globally in nearly a decade.
Mathieu added, “In ‘Happiness Factory–The Movie’, the iconic Coca-Cola contour bottle and the enduring mystery of the brand’s secret formula, come together to create a great piece of entertainment for the audience and an effective way for us to express the values of the Coca-Cola brand. We hope that our consumers will have fun with the campaign and think it is a sequel worth waiting for.”
The campaign also includes 30- and 60- second trailers, movie-inspired poster ads, promotional packaging, character licensing and interactive digital elements. “Happiness Factory–The Movie” was produced by W+K Amsterdam using “state-of-the-art” animation techniques and a team of more than 50 3-D animators from PSYOP.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More