Earlier this year, Coca Cola managed to make the news again in the packaging world. We all remember their campaign « share a coke with… » which customized bottles with numerous first names. The product could then propose a true connection between the consumer and therefore be « unique ».

Coca Cola went even further with some Diet Coke bottles. This time, every bottle was absolutely unique thanks to its unique label. Every design was generated randomly. What made this campaign a success is that all the bottles were different but still easy to recognize thanks to their shape and the logo. In other words, Coca Cola managed to reinforce the link between the buyers and the product by making a widely distributed product something unique.

The challenge was obviously to create two millions of these unique labels. Even the best team of graphic designers could not possibly do such a job. Coca Cola therefore worked with HP Indigo and created an algorithm. This algorithm works with 25 base designs that it cuts, stretches and reworks totally to give birth to a brand new design for the label. This label is actually a shrink sleeve label, so that it fits the shape of the bottle.

This shrink sleeve label is then printed by a digital press, at high speed, and then applied to the bottles.

Coca Cola goes even further by numbering all of these labels. This way, if one loves the unique design on the bottle, it is possible to order merchandising, t-shirts or smartphone covers with the same design.

Thanks to this campaign, the brand managed to show how creative it can be on the technical level – printing 2 million different labels is not easy – as well as on the marketing level. Moreover, Coca Cola succeeded once again in creating a unique link between the consumer and the product, and there’s no doubt it is one of the recipes of their success.

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