Coca Cola will access the power of social media to create some international buzz for the brand around the globe commencing January 1, 2010 and lasting for a full year. As part of their "Open Happiness" campaign, the year-long quest to find out what makes people happy will go under the code name, "Expedition 206," and will take a team of Happiness Ambassadors from Aruba to Zimbabwe.
Expedition 206 Map
Three bloggers will be chosen for the Expedition 206 tour and will be tasked to blog, tweet, interview, post stories to the Web site, take photos and produce and upload videos to YouTube.
The team of ambassadors will meet with locals in all the countries they visit commencing in Madrid, January 1, 2010 and ending at Coca-Cola headquarters in Altanta, Georgia on December 3, twelve months later.
Anyone can help select the three top bloggers from the nine finalists that Coca Cola has already identified. Votes can be cast at Expedition206.com up until November 6 when the lucky winning team of three will be announced. Presently you can see how each team of three are running neck-and-neck in the voting.
Team WOW! is one of three teams vying for the top spot. Here, you can watch Greer, Brendan and Erin as they try to convince the world to vote for THEM.
Promoted on the Web site as "206 Countries, 365 Days, 1 Mission," the Ambassadors will participate in some amazing events including the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the FIFA World Cup in South Africa and the World Expo in Shanghai.
"If things go better with Coke," this social media tour sounds like the "real thing." I’m sure this international viral buzz is going to keep Pepsi up nights trying to figure out how to throw a counter-punch. Do I hear "Return of the Cola Wars!" If so, I think the "Big C" just took round one!
Cola Wars – Coke vs Pepsi
