Today soft drink giant Coca-Cola announced that it would be promoting the launch of its new Super Bowl ads with a free branded virtual gift campaign on Facebook. The new campaign is called Open Happiness and allows users to send virtual Coke bottles to their Facebook friends. For every virtual gift sent, Coca-Cola will make a $1 donation to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
Users who send a virtual gift will get to watch 20-second sneak previews of the new Coca-Cola Super Bowl ads. On February 7, uses who sent virtual gifts will be able to watch the new commercials online in their entirety, before they are broadcast during the Super Bowl later that evening. Visitors to Coca-Cola campaign site LivePositively.com and MyCokeRewards.com will be directed to the Facebook page so they can send and receive virtual gifts.
Coca-Cola's campaign is very similar to recent video-oriented campaigns conducted by social media advertiser AdNectar for brands like Harry Potter and 3M. Coca-Cola is as high-profile as consumer brands get, though, which may indicate that promotional virtual gifts have become a mainstream advertising tactic. Promoting a Super Bowl commercial launch is possibly the highest-profile use of branded virtual gifts on Facebook to date.
The charity donation angle is also unusual when it comes to branded gifting, and it's worth watching to see if Coca-Cola's competitors imitate it in future social media campaigns. Non-profit groups have a history of using paid virtual gifts on Facebook as a way to raise funds and awareness , but this may be the first instance of a major brand using charitable donations to promote viral spread of a branded virtual gift.
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