Coca-Cola’s iconic Coca-Cola Christmas truck tour kicks off this year on November 17th 2016, with visits planned for 44 stops locations across the UK in the run up to Christmas Day. Plus, for the first time, the truck will also be making appearances on fans’ Twitter feeds – anyone tweeting #HolidaysAreComing will see the Coca-Cola Christmas truck appear in their tweet.

Coca-Cola has updated the truck tour experience for 2016, with visitors being able to explore a special winter wonderland before enjoying a 150ml can of Coca-Cola Classic, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar or Diet Coke. When the sun sets, the truck comes to life with a special animation powered by the crowd’s seasonal goodwill, celebrating the magic Coca-Cola brings to Christmas.

In addition to the 44 nationwide stops, Coca-Cola is also offering consumers the chance to win a personal visit to their home from the Christmas truck plus a Santa sack full of goodies worth £5,000. To enter the draw, consumers just need to buy a promotional pack of Coca-Cola, Diet Coke or Coca-Cola Zero Sugar and follow the instructions on pack.

The famous ‘Holidays Are Coming’ TV advert will also return to UK screens, 21 years since first being aired. Coca-Cola will also launch a brand new TV advert, ‘A Coke for Christmas’, celebrating the joy of giving over the festive period. The TV ad features a young boy who spreads joy through gifting the refreshing, uplifting and unique taste of Coca-Cola to those who are making Christmas a reality.

To support the message that Christmas is the season for giving, this year Coca-Cola is expanding its partnership with FareShare, the UK-wide charity that tackles food waste and hunger. An on-pack promotion will enable consumers to Donate a Meal to Someone in Need this Christmas.

Consumers just need to purchase a promotional pack of Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Life or Coca-Cola Zero Sugar which features the FareShare logo, take a photo of the label and upload it to cocacola.co.uk/donate. Coca-Cola will then donate 25p for each photo uploaded, enabling FareShare to provide a frontline charity, such as a homeless shelter or older people’s lunch club, with enough food to serve a meal to someone in need.

Finally, for the ninth year in a row, Coca-Cola is bringing back its Designated Driver campaign. Run in partnership with the Department for Transport’s THINK! Drink Drive campaign, the initiative rewards people who are driving to the pub over the festive period by offering a free second soft drink when they purchase a Coca-Cola Classic, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Appletiser or Schweppes at participating pubs and restaurants when they show their keys at the bar.

Aedamar Howlett, Marketing Director for Coca-Cola Great Britain, says: “Coca-Cola is synonymous with the Christmas season and it’s no secret that our much-loved Holidays are Coming advert and Christmas Truck Tour mark the unofficial countdown to Christmas. This year, we’ll also put those people who work behind the scenes to make Christmas happen at the heart of our Christmas campaign. We’re proud to celebrate those that go the extra mile to make Christmas a special time of year – we all know someone who goes out of their way to put a smile on everyone’s face and make the festive time of year magical for others.”

Locations the Coca-Cola Christmas Truck Tour is scheduled to visit this year include:

Bishops Square, London – November 17th; Glasgow – November 18th; Ayr – November 19th; Dundee – November 20th; Carlisle – November 22nd; Yeovil – November 22nd; Exeter – November 23rd; Newcastle upon Tyne – November 23rd; Cardiff – November 24th; Sunderland – November 24th; Bristol – November 25th; Leeds – November 25th; Scarborough – November 26th; Swindon – November 26th; Bradford – November 27th; Milton Keynes – November 27th; Bournemouth – November 29th; Wrexham – November 29th; Southampton – November 30th; Watford – December 1st; Manchester – December 1st; Intu Trafford Centre, Manchester – December 2nd; Lancaster – December 3rd; Liverpool – December 4th; The O2 Greenwich, London – December 3rd; The O2 Greenwich, London – December 4th; Baldock – December 6th; St Helens – December 6th; Harlow – December 7th; Doncaster – December 8th; Ipswich – December 8th; Cleethorpes – December 9th; Norwich – December 9th; Lincoln – December 10th; Northampton – December 11th; Leicester – December 13th; Peterborough – December 13th; Leyton Mills, London – December 14th; Telford – December 14th; Southend-on-Sea – December 15th; Birmingham – December 17th; Eastbourne – December 17th; Coca-Cola London Eye, London – December 18th; Leicester Square, London – December 20th.

Coca-Cola Great Britain is responsible for marketing 20 brands and 80 products to consumers across Great Britain. Led by Coca-Cola, one of the world’s most valuable and recognisable brands, the company portfolio includes Fanta, Sprite, Dr Pepper, Oasis, GLACÉAU smartwater, Schweppes, Lilt and Appletiser.

FareShare is a UK-wide charity that tackles hunger and food waste by redistributing good food that would otherwise go to waste to frontline charities and community groups that support vulnerable people, including homeless shelters, children’s breakfast clubs, and domestic violence refuges.

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Coca-Cola has brought back its Designated Driver offer for the eighth year running, giving designated drivers two-for-one on selected soft drinks at participating pubs and bars across the country.

Coca-Cola’s Designated Driver offer is run in partnership with the Department for Transport’s THINK! road safety campaign. The initiative rewards people who are driving to the pub over the festive period by offering a free second soft drink when they purchase a Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Life, Coca-Cola Zero, Diet Coke, or a Schweppes drink, including the newly launched Schweppes Sparkling Juice Drinks. This year Appletiser has also been added to the line-up, providing even more options to choose from.

Coca-Cola has also launched a new online Designated Driver Pub Finder tool (www.holidaysarecoming.com/designateddriver) so partygoers can search for a participating pub near them.

Jon Woods, General Manager, Coca-Cola Great Britain, says: “For the eighth year in a row, designated drivers at pubs across the country will be rewarded with free drinks so that they can celebrate the festive period and help to get their friends and family home safely. This is our way of thanking the unsung heroes of the festive party season, whilst helping make sure the roads are a bit safer for everyone.”

Brigid Simmonds, Chief Executive of the British Beer & Pub Association said: “It’s great to see so many pubgoers embracing the idea of having a designated driver – support from companies like Coca-Cola for the campaign really is making a difference. Being a designated driver doesn’t stop you having a great night out at Christmas. But it does mean that everyone can have a safe journey home.”

Andrew Jones MP, Roads Minister, said: “Drivers know that drink driving is wrong. It can destroy families and ruin lives.  Yet some people at Christmas will still take the risk and get behind the wheel when they shouldn’t. Over the past thirty years drink drive deaths have fallen significantly but every death or serious injury is one too many.  The best way for drivers to keep themselves and other road users safe is simple: don’t drink and drive.”

Coca-Cola has also published new research that suggests Brits are a nation of partygoers with nearly a third (30%) planning to attend three or more Christmas parties in December. Two thirds (64%) admit they will have one too many drinks, with more than a quarter (27%) preparing to deal with at least four festive hangovers.

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Coca-Cola in the US has launched a new Christmas-themed “Share a Coke” label campaign, giving consumers the chance to order bottle with seasonal names and messages.

For a limited time, Coca-Cola is replacing its iconic logo on glass bottles, multi-packs, 12-ounce cans, 20-ounce bottles, 1.25-liter and 2-liter PET bottles with a range of options including “Santa,” “Someone Nice,” “Someone Naughty,” “Under the Mistletoe,” “Elves” and “Secret Santa.”

Aluminum bottles of Coca-Cola will feature reindeer names such as “Dasher & Dancer,” “Prancer & Vixen” and “Comet & Cupid.”

Racquel Harris Mason, vice president Coca-Cola trademark, Coca-Cola North America, says: “The ‘Make Someone Happy’ campaign is all about sharing your time, attention, love and laughter with others. And by pairing the holiday with ‘Share a Coke’ packaging, we’re hoping to give people even more ways to make a connection and share a special moment together. Whether it’s toasting to ‘Mrs. Claus’ or wrapping gifts with your ‘Elves,’ we hope ‘Share a Coke’ helps make moments with friends and family even more magical this holiday season.”

The ‘Share a Coke’ activity launches at the same time as the return of Coca-Cola’s “Make Someone Happy” advertising campaign, which encourages people to look beyond the presents and focus on the true spirit of the Christmas holidays. The 60-second TV spot shows that all it takes to make someone happy is the act of opening your heart.

The Coca-Cola Holiday Caravan, five trucks each illuminated by more than 30,000 red and white sparkling lights, also returns, rolling into 90 cities across the US in a massive sampling and experiential campaign running until December 20, 2015.

Consumers who want to purchase and send “Share a Coke” glass bottles customized with names or holiday themes can do so through ShareaCoke.com. Online purchase options include individual eight-ounce glass bottles and six-packs of eight-ounce glass bottles of Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola’s iconic Santa Claus, as imagined by the artist Haddon Sundblom, will appear along with “Share a Coke” names on limited-edition holiday packaging on Coca-Cola multi-packs, cans, glass bottles, and on 20-ounce, 1.25-liter and 2-liter PET bottles. “Share a Coke” will also come to life through Coca-Cola Freestyle fountain dispensers, which will offer a limited-time mix called “Secret Santa.”

Social and digital campaigns will provide fans the opportunity to test and share whether they’ve been “Someone Naughty” or “Someone Nice” this year through a Facebook app.

The fully integrated campaign will also feature a radio takeover across partnering stations, print, out-of-home, point of sale, Delta in-flight and mall advertising.

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Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) is offering consumers the chance to win a two-hour visit from the Coca-Cola truck to their home town, plus a £5,000 Christmas hamper to mark the 20th anniversary of its iconic “Holidays are Coming” marketing campaign.

The prize promotion is a new feature of the campaign, which kicked off last week. The traditional Christmas truck tour roadshow will stop at more than 40 locations across Great Britain over a six-week period.

The campaign features across the Coca-Cola portfolio on a range of pack formats including 500ml and 1.75-litres, providing consumers with a unique on-pack code that can be entered online to be in with a chance of winning the prize. The competition will be supported with truck-inspired in-store POS, according to Caroline Cater, director of operational marketing, while TV advertising will run from late November.

Cater observes: “When people think of Christmas, they often think of Coca-Cola. It’s once-in-a-lifetime prizes like a visit from the Coca-Cola truck that really builds excitement around the holidays, and positions us as a brand synonymous with the festive season.”

She adds: “Soft drinks in general are hugely important at this time of the year and are in fact the most frequently bought category in the eight weeks running up to Christmas. It is important for us to provide campaigns that allow retailers to maximise their Christmas sales. This year is no different.”

Coca-Cola is offering a two-hour visit from the Coca-Cola truck to consumers’ home towns plus a £5,000 Christmas hamper as a prize in its 2015 “Holidays are Coming” marketing campaign.

Agencies working on the campaign include PR company Lexis, experiential agency Playmaker and media agency MediaCom.

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Coca-Cola Enterprises is launching a rugby-themed mobile shopper marketing promotion, Try To Win, offering consumers the chance to win a number of prizes instantly.
Designed to appeal to its target 16-29 year old demographic, the instant win promotion is running in convenience stores and offers prizes including limited edition rugby balls and LCD TVs. Shoppers have to answer rugby-related questions correctly in order to be entered.
The promotion is running across 500ml bottles of all four Coca-Cola variants in a range of different retailers including Nisa, Costcutter and Spar stores.
It aims to engage with rugby fans and their families, while encouraging new shoppers to get involved in the sport at the point of purchase.
Pierre-Luc Petard, Senior Manager Digital Shopper Marketing at Coca-Cola Enterprises, says: “This is a fantastic way to engage and entertain Coca-Cola consumers through a simple but fun mobile experience. Capitalising on the shopper trend towards gamification, this rugby-themed experience is delivered in-store to surprise and delight shoppers.”
Coca-Cola is an Official Sponsor of the Rugby World Cup 2015.

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