Project Re: Brief — 'Hilltop' Re-imagined for Coca-Cola
Google (with Coca-Cola)2012
Project Re: Brief — 'Hilltop' Re-imagined for Coca-Cola is a 2012 interactive display and mobile ad for Google, created by Johannes Leonardo, New York / Grow Interactive, Norfolk.
Why it works
The Coca-Cola strand of Project Re: Brief, a Google experiment unveiled at SXSW in March 2012 in which the creators of four classic 1960s and 70s campaigns came out of retirement to rebuild their ideas as digital ads. Harvey Gabor, who art-directed Coca-Cola's 1971 'Hilltop', worked with Johannes Leonardo and Grow Interactive on a rich-media banner and mobile ad that made the old song's promise literal: viewers chose a specially fitted vending machine abroad, added a text or video message and sent a stranger a free Coke, and the recipient could send thanks back. Google described the project as a concept car, meant to show that online advertising could delight rather than merely inform, and filmed the process for a Doug Pray documentary that premiered at Cannes. It is studied as the moment the humble display unit was treated as a medium for big ideas. It won the first Mobile Lions Grand Prix at Cannes in 2012 and a One Show Gold Pencil for dynamic banners in 2013.
Techniques
- Participation Viewers pick a vending machine abroad, add a text or video message and send a stranger a free Coke, and the recipient can reply with thanks.
- Transfer The art director of a classic 1971 campaign rebuilds it for digital, borrowing the much-loved song's promise and making it literal.
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