The new global campaign from Coca Cola, running in over 100 countries, has been dubbed ‘an ode to the community’ which will ‘bring together people of all ages, beliefs and walks of life to evoke the magic of Christmas’.
The campaign, created by McCann Madrid, includes a TV spot which features a giant Santa Claus marionette puppet maneuvered by locals who come together to spread the Christmas joy.
The ad opens on Santa packing a box and delivering it to a residential street with a sign saying ‘for those who don’t believe’. The ad then cuts to a lone girl who notices the box and goes down to discover it has a huge Santa inside. The 8-meter tall marionette Santa, created by Martin Pec, a sculpture and model maker from Prague, is then brought to life by members of the community.
Leandro Raposo, executive creative director at McCann Madrid, said of the new campaign: “In a year like this one, we wanted to highlight the elements of Christmas that are even more magical and relevant than the traditional ones.”
Raposo added: “We used the device of the puppet, as it has been a storytelling device for generations. This puppet specifically, the one Santa sends to the human race, can only come to life when everyone gathers around it to make it work. We felt it was a beautiful metaphor for Christmas of this time and age.”
Michael Willeke, director of marketing communications. EU at The Coca-Cola Company said: "This year’s global Coca-Cola Christmas campaign was again developed in Germany with our international agency support and should inspire all people to evoke the magic of Christmas together. Besides a new TV spot with our new Christmas Song “Something in the air” we focus within this campaign on digital and social media tools.”