Coca-Cola: Reconnecting Myanmar Youth to Their Tea Culture

Tea is woven into daily life in Myanmar, but the ritual belonged to tea shops and older generations. Coca-Cola's new ready-to-drink tea had to reconnect a traditional drink with an audience living a modern life and consuming media in modern ways.

Commercially the task was bigger than a launch. The ready-to-drink tea category barely existed, so Coca-Cola had to create, develop and lead it in a short time. The team had a single day in which to deliver an integrated, experiential launch event that would set the category's terms.

The strategy was to honour the heritage of tea while making it feel new. Ruder Finn Era, then ERA Communications, brought the key messages to life through experiential booths, a Myanmar history expert who spoke about the heritage and art of drinking tea, and a chef who paired dishes with the three launch flavours.

The audience was deliberately mixed: media, KOLs, bloggers and consumers experienced the product together. A high tea session was built for live tweeting and posting, so the launch travelled through social channels in real time, and a closing media event gave journalists the business story. The integrated design meant one day produced earned, social and influencer coverage at once.