Coca-Cola Co. turns cans into game pieces for its Unexpected Summer campaign, one of its biggest summer pushes in recent years.
The instant-win sweeps will seed 120 grand-prize cans that have global positioning system and cell phone equipment inside. Winners use the cans to call a pre-programmed hotline, then give permission for Coke “search teams” to track them and surprise them with a prize anytime within three weeks — anyplace. Winners must carry the can at all times until their prize is delivered, according to news reports. Updates at www.unexpectedsummer.com show teams tracking winning cans that have been called in. Winning cans have the same weight and heft as regular cans, and are seeded in multipacks of Coke, including caffeine-free, Cherry and Vanilla.
Prizes include a 2005 Chevrolet Equinox SUV, a chance to win $1 million via Harrah’s Casino, Disney vacations and home entertainment systems. Peel-off labels on one in six cans reveal lower-level prizes. Tie-ins with 186 radio stations nationally include other prize giveaways. TV support breaks May 17.
Coca-Cola first used its cans as game pieces in the late 1980s with its Magic Can campaign. Winning cans carried cash prizes that popped out when cans were opened. Those cans carried a non-potable liquid to give them the same weight and feel of cans full of cola; problems arose when the liquid leaked in some cans and consumers drank it. No one was injured.
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