The brand lesson in Coca-Cola's Olympic ‘hugging can’ design

Originally published in Creative Bloq

When it comes to famous brand sponsorships, Coca-Cola and the Olympics go hand in hand – and so do the new cans that the iconic soft drinks brand has launched to celebrate the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games.

With two cans placed together to create an image of two arms locked in an embrace, the new design symbolises hope and inclusivity. It’s yet another example of Coke getting its branding and activations spot on – and could be a sign of things to come on the streets of Paris this summer.

The new Paris Olympics can design unveiled by Coca-Cola this week is the latest example from a company that has long been a champion of unity and togetherness in its brand messaging, with its well-documented purpose to “refresh the world and make a difference”.

This campaign is perfectly in line with the brand. After all, it seems that every four years, when the summer Olympics roll around, there is a pause of sorts, where the world tends to put aside key differences and struggles and watches with bated breath in hopes of witnessing something miraculous.

There’s little doubt we all have these moments stored in our memory bank. And whether it was an injured Kerri Strug securing gold for the Magnificent Seven in 1996 or Derek Redmond's father supporting him across the finish line in 1992, we hope to witness greatness in one form or another.

Coca-Cola understands how in these moments, there is magic to be found. In fact, the brand’s long-time support of the Olympics has now become something for marketers, as well as consumers, to look forward to.

It is certainly not the only iconic brand with a long history of supporting the games, but it is hard to find a time when Coke's branding didn’t align with the Olympic spirit. From the legendary I'd like to buy the world a Coke Hilltop ad in 1971 to the Small World vending machines used to drive unity between India and Pakistan, Coke has never shied away from attempting to drive togetherness during times of division.

For this Olympiad, held during one of the most polarised periods of recent years, Coca-Cola has gone beyond the Olympic rings co-branding placement on its packaging. The ‘Hug’ cans were designed to extend its campaign, putting the message directly into the hands of consumers (pun intended), and I think we are going to see more extensions during the Games themselves.

I’m sure I’m not the only one looking forward to seeing how Coke intends to extend this campaign into the streets of Paris for this year's Olympics – for spectators and athletes alike.

Will there be ‘hugging booths’? Exchanges of uniforms? Highlights of Olympians from different countries coming together to celebrate each other's accomplishments? Just as Schoenmaker and Lazor famously embraced in the pool in Tokyo, I think Coca-Cola is betting on more moments like this to amplify the magic happening at every Olympic games.

I think we can expect these efforts and more from the brand, as Coke knows better than most the power of moments. The brand is well-practiced in taking smaller engagements and one-to-one interactions and using them in its marketing to drive brand affinity.

Even though the Olympic stage is massive, other brands can learn from Coca-Cola's strategy. They create relatively small moments of happiness, like an on-the-street surprise and delight, and then amplify it into the social space to drive awareness.

For example, I didn't personally see a Happiness Vending Machine in 2010 – after all, it was only placed on one college campus in New York – but the impact of the video is so memorable that we still mention it today, 14 years later, as a perfect example of a surprise and delight moment transformed into a marketing campaign.

It will be fascinating to see what Coke does with this campaign during the Olympics, just because it has got it so right in the past. There is a weight of expectation and the brand now has another opportunity to show just how well it can bear it. Fingers – and hugging arms – crossed.