Coca-Cola: Balikbayan magic

A small community program offering Filipino Canadians free, prepaid Balikbayan Boxes had given Coca-Cola a foothold with a growing multicultural audience. Year two of "Balikbayan Magic" needed to make a modest investment work harder during the Christmas holiday season.

How do you make “we’re back” impossible to miss - for a small, highly targeted program in the noisiest moment of the year?

Before you can fill a Balikbayan Box, you have to find one. For Filipinos abroad, that often means the local sari-sari store - an unsung custodian of a tradition kept alive thousands of miles from home.

Celebrate the place that keeps the tradition alive by turning it into the box itself.

To announce our return, we told the story of one of Canada’s oldest sari-sari stores and its role in keeping Toronto’s Balikbayan tradition alive - then transformed the storefront into a giant Balikbayan Box. Part thank-you to a community institution. Part neighbourhood beacon showing locals exactly where to pick up their free, prepaid Coca-Cola boxes.

139 earned media placements. +257% YoY lift in brand equity tied to the tradition. +33% YoY lift in local Coca-Cola sales within Toronto’s Filipino community.

That’s real magic.