Brand Watch: Sprite Unleashes ‘Infinite Potential’
The Coca-Cola Co. and its marketing partners developed an end-to-end commerce campaign with one of Marvel Studios’ highest-grossing movies.
Sprite Zero Sugar teamed with “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” for a campaign called “Infinite Potential. Zero Limits.” The monthslong effort ending Dec. 31, 2022, set out to build brand love, drive sales, generate excitement for the film and empower multicultural consumers.
The target audience was Gen Z ages 18 to 26, with an interest in areas such as music, film, art, fashion and entertainment, according to agency Momentum Worldwide.
“Sprite’s partnership with Marvel Studios’ ‘Black Panther’ movie gave us a great opportunity to showcase Black and Latinx creators and highlighted the ‘Infinite Potential’ and ‘Zero Limits’ of self-expression,” says A.P. Chaney, Sprite North America director of creative for Sprite and Fanta.
Shoppers scanned a QR code on Sprite Zero Sugar bottles to launch an immersive augmented reality experience. Through a custom interface, the virtual guide led participants through a “Hall of Zero Limits.” The guide gathered information about the shoppers’ artistic interests and matched them with creators from the movie who shared their stories through videos, pro tips and other content. They introduced specialized roles such as production designer and storyboard artist, with a focus on how these creators of color translated their talents into successful careers in film.
Campaign Contributors
- Cashmere Agency – public relations and influencer kits
- EssenceMediacom – media connections planning
- Golden – packaging design
- Wieden+Kennedy – strategy, consumer composite index, and television commercial, online video and over the top content production
- WPP’s OpenX – social and digital content
- Wunderman Thompson – digital experience and AR shopper hook
During the campaign, Sprite used limited-edition packaging inspired by the Black Panther superhero costume. In-store displays and signage — including endcaps, pallet wraps, shelf talkers and standees — highlighted the packaging design as well as Shuri and Okoye, two female lead characters from the film.
Beyond retail, Momentum Worldwide hosted screenings of the film for the historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) community. HBCU students had the opportunity to submit their best designs for an invention as part of a competition held in conjunction with the campaign. Voting kicked off during the 2022 Cricket Celebration Bowl college football game, and winners were selected at the end of that year.
At the campaign’s end, it had 825 million earned media impressions and helped the brand to a 54% increase in sales. More than 300,000 people scanned the code on the campaign bottles and typically more than three minutes were spent on the digital experience — three times the industry average, according to Momentum.
The campaign was also the grand prize winner for experiential marketing at the 2023 Association of National Advertisers Multicultural Excellence Awards.
Chaney says she is very proud of the campaign’s success. “We hope that by showing how these talented professionals started out in fields not traditionally associated with Hollywood, we inspired aspiring creators to dive deeper into discovering their purpose, passion and power,” she says.
