Cannes Lions: Google helps buy the world a Coke as first vending machine for Project Rebrief goes live in Capetown
Google has helped Coca-Cola fulfil its message of buying the world a Coke, as its first vending machine where online users can send a free drink online through a text message, has gone live in Capetown, South Africa.
The vending machine is part of Google’s , which has seen the search company aim to flex its creative muscle to reinvent classic campaigns; Volvo’s ‘Drive it Like You Hate it’, Alka Selzer’s ‘I Can’t Believe I Ate The Whole Thing’, Avis – ‘We Try Harder’ and Coca-Cola’s ‘Hilltop’.
Through the reinvention of Hilltop, which saw Harvey Gabor, the original art director for the project work with Google’s creative team, the advert is being reused to promote using Google’s advertising platform to buy people across the world a Coke.
The first vending machine will give a free Coke to someone in South Africa, each time someone records and send a message to connect with them, effectively buying the world a Coke, as stated by the lyrics in the Hilltop ad.
The new advert allows users to select a location, or it well when further vending machines are activated, attach a personal video or text message, and then watch it be delivered to the vending machine, through which the recipient can send a message back.
Speaking at a Q&A session at the Cannes Festival of Creativity, once the Google technicians had figured out how to change the settings of the company’s homepage from French to English, Aman Govil, product marketing manager for Google explained; “We love spending time on the web, but none of us can say we saw an ad on the web and fell in love with it. We wanted to go ahead and change that.”
Govil added that idea wasn’t to take an old advert and ‘make it new’. He said of Project Rebrief: “For a new age, the idea was in the process which had to be slightly different.”
This led to original creatives from four iconic adverts being brought back to work on their campaigns, and re-imagine how they could be used effectively today through the use of Google’s technology.
Ahead of the a film about the creation of the new executions for the four adverts going live on Google’s Project Rebrief website next Monday, Google is to fly out to the Cannes Advertising Festival five original creatives; Harvey Gabour (Hilltop), Amil Gargano (Drive It Like You Hate It), Howie Cohen and Bob Pasqualina (I Can’t Believe I Ate The Whole Thing) and Paula Green (We Try Harder) for a panel discussion.