Coca-Goala: The Audio Branding of the 2010 World Cup

There is one factor that will undoubtably affect the success of an audio brand more than any other: frequency.

After all, what use is a brilliant piece of audio, that perfectly and wordlessly describes your brand values, if nobody hears it? 

With this, I have flipped my keen eye to a superb decade-old case of a new Audio Brand launch. 

The 2010 World Cup was recognisable for so many amazing moments: Lampard’s disallowed goal, Rooney’s bizarre scandal, Nigel De Jong’s karate kick; and K’naan’s ‘Waving Flag’.

Coca-Cola’s branding of this 2010 World Cup was simply masterful; and they achieved it simply by sponsoring the ‘Theme of the World Cup’ – K’naan’s ‘Waving Flag’. 

This track was then played with Coca-Cola branded visuals to open the tournament and before every game, to the 46% of the world’s population that were watching. Then it was played twice at half time, and after the game too. Frequency. 

Except this isn’t all they did. 

They also had a significant hand in writing the song that K’naan performed – including the incredibly catchy melody running through the hook. 

This was their new Sonic Logo, placed in the track using a technique called audio watermarking: placing a motif throughout a track to create an earworm, causing us (as half of the population of the world) to compulsively hum that chipper motif as we’re going about our daily lives.

We effectively became walking, singing adverts for Coca-Cola.

The track (labelled the Coca-Cola Celebration Mix) reached number 1 in 17 countries and had over 800,000 worldwide purchased downloads (remember them?!), as well as amassing to this point over 210 million views on YouTube. 

In fact this Audio Identity track, to use our proper branding lingo, was so effective that 5 years later, as Coca-Cola reviewed their use of audio, the brand lifted the melody found in the verses of the song to become the basis of their new campaign and Sonic Logo: Taste the Feeling.

It is, to this date, the most immediate and effective launch of a Sonic Brand that I’ve come across.

This is obviously on a massive scale. It’s Coca-Cola. What do you expect? 

But the same principles work the same way at any scale; and I’d love to chat about how we could build and launch your new Audio Brand.

Sound good? 

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