How Coca-Cola Embraced 'The Bear' to Unite Its Portfolio of Brands
Coca-Cola taps into the magic of family bonding with ‘The Bear’, a captivating film directed by the creator of a popular TV show Discover how this heartwarming ad beautifully showcases the connection between Coca-Cola's diverse range of brands and the joy of coming together
The Coca-Cola Company aims to kick off the year with a strong start by creating content that links its range of products with family gatherings. Notably, this campaign is the first to feature a combined showcase of its various brands.
"We usually focus on our product range for sales purposes, but [Coca-Cola Chief of Marketing Shakir Moin] always encourages us to aim for an emotional connection with consumers," explained Alex Ames, director of content and creative excellence at Coca-Cola North America. "Our goal is to tell the story of the beautifully imperfect family, much like our diverse range of products at Coca-Cola. As we delved into this concept, the magic really started to happen."
The campaign was created through discussions with partners at Majority, a diversity-focused creative agency within Coca-Cola's OpenX arrangement with global marketing partner WPP. The core concept stemmed from leveraging Coca-Cola's sponsorship of major events like the Olympics and the World Cup and bringing that energy into people's homes, positioning the brand as the "proud sponsor" of meaningful moments.
The result is "New Guy," a commercial directed by Christopher Storer, known for his work on Hulu’s series "The Bear," showcasing the beautiful chaos of real families. The 30- and 90-second ads draw inspiration from "Fishes," an episode of the show centered on a lively Christmas dinner – an unexpected but effective source of inspiration for the beverage company's advertisement.
The majority proposed an idea that combined elements of "The Bear" and Homer's "Odyssey." Through some fortunate circumstances, Coca-Cola collaborated with production partner Smuggler to bring half of that concept to life, according to Ames. "Homer passed away over 2000 years ago, so having the opportunity to work with the other source of inspiration in Chris Storer was truly a remarkable stroke of luck," he said.
"New Guy" depicts the moment when a person brings their new partner home for the first time. It portrays the bustling atmosphere of a family gathering during the holidays, with dishes cooking in the oven, children running around, and a sports game playing on the TV. The "new guy" interacts with several family members, all of whom had mistakenly expected him to be shorter, before finally engaging in a firm handshake with the family's patriarch.
During pre-production, Coca-Cola made it clear that their products would play a key role in the story, seamlessly integrated into the narrative. This included scenes of characters drinking Sprite to cool down, children and quirky relatives enjoying Honest juice boxes, and a lively sports argument featuring Coke Zero Sugar. "Many brands wouldn't be able to fit into a story like this, but we're fortunate to have such well-defined products within our portfolio," noted Ames.
Storer aimed to create an advertisement centered on family and a range of products, utilizing the familiar cast and crew from "The Bear" as much as possible. Similarly, Ames described the client-agency dynamic at video village as a familial affair, with longstanding relationships spanning across the divide.
"There was an incredible sense of family, and with that comes trust. While we had the script and the storyboard, there was a level of trust that only comes from family, and it extended to welcoming new individuals into our family, just like in the ad," explained Ames. "It allowed Chris Storer the freedom to excel at what he does best."
In addition to TV spot production, the campaign is supported by nearly 40,000 unique creative pieces that will be displayed across various media including programmatic, out-of-home, and display. These assets are based on consumer insights related to products, messages, and imagery, allowing marketers to mix and match to identify the most effective opportunities.
Despite the large number of creative assets, the majority of the work was performed by humans rather than generative artificial intelligence, even though Coca-Cola has emerged as a leader in utilizing this technology in advertising. Rather than AI driving creative ideation or asset creation, the technology is used to automate certain insight generation processes. Additionally, the abundance of creative content can be utilized to further train AI for future applications, particularly in relation to ad delivery.
Ames pointed out that the industry is hesitant to give AI complete freedom. They have been using AI, but the question is how it enhances the human creativity that agencies like Majority and WPP provide.
