An SMP for Coca-Cola's Guerilla Marketing Campaign

For those who have never seen this clip, it is one of my favorite examples of effective marketing. Coca-Cola has always had strong branding and good advertisements, but in my opinion, this guerilla marketing campaign takes the cake.

In my class we have been studying the single minded proposition (or SMP), and this is the statement that essentially guides the creative team toward creating good content or art that will be used in an ad campaign.  For this commercial, I would imagine that the SMP emphasized, as with all Coke ads, a theme of happiness. However, a good SMP also inspires the creative team, and in this case it is clear that the creative team was incredibly inspired.

I think that Coca-Cola leveraged the insight of how happy and joyous people get when they get free items from a vending machine and then ran with it. So the SMP may have been as simple and connected as, "Show that Coca-Cola brings the same joy that free items from a vending machine does." This SMP may be closely linked to the actual creative that was produced, but I think that's what made it so effective and compelling. The team identified a terrific insight and then enlightened the creative team and allowed them to take it to the next level. Sometimes the situation requires less structure or required elements for the campaign, but sometimes it takes a bit more guidance when you identify something that resonates as well as this campaign does. In this case, I think Coke nailed a great insight and translated it into their SMP, and the result is a campaign that makes consumers gleeful just watching it. Good SMP's lead to good creative, and this example showcases that principle.