If you could rally 50 million of your friends to make the world a happier place, what kind of results do you think you could achieve? Coca-Cola has announced plans to find out as the 50 millionth Facebook user “Liked” the brand’s page. By harnessing the collective input of its fan base on Facebook, Coca-Cola will be a catalyst in identifying simple ways to make the world a happier place.
“Throughout its history Coca-Cola has always had a role in bringing simple moments of happiness to people around the world every day,” said Joe Tripodi, chief marketing and commercial leadership officer, The Coca-Cola Co., in a prepared statement. “Today we have an engaged global community more than 50 million strong connected through Facebook. This provides an opportunity to engage our most supportive and enthusiastic fans in a quest to find ways to make the world a happier place.”
Coca-Cola will identify individuals developing ideas that enable people to become more active, give to others, be social or engage in other activities associated with increased happiness. These creators will then collaborate with Coca-Cola and its Facebook community to develop ideas that help spread happiness around the world.
Through a new application on Coca-Cola’s Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/cocacola, fans can declare their commitment to help spread happiness and be a part of this global effort at http://CokeURL.com/50MM.
Once registered, fans will be invited to directly participate by influencing and shaping the ideas and rallying the larger community behind a social innovation. The Coca-Cola Co. will support the selected concept and visionary behind the idea by providing access to teams that will help propel their solution. The ultimate outcome, to be piloted in 2013, could be a new invention, a cause or even a social application – something that can harness the connectivity of the Facebook community to spread happiness around the world.
“Coca-Cola understands the value of communicating directly with its most ardent supporters in an authentic way that helps make the world more open and connected,” said Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer, Facebook. “This new program is the next step in fan culture and we are glad to support Coca-Cola in this effort.”
Coca-Cola will share further details about the selection of participants, timelines and concepts identified as the program progresses in coming weeks.
The Coca-Cola Facebook Page was not created by the company but by two fans of the brand – Dusty Sorg and Michael Jedrzejewski. In August 2008, Dusty and Michael were looking for a fan page on Facebook to share their passion for Coca-Cola and, not finding one that met their idea of a great page, created their own. From that beginning, The Coca-Cola Facebook Page has grown to become the largest brand page on Facebook.
