Chinese New Year Games
View the case- Brand
- Coca-Cola
- Year
- 2022
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Food & Drink
- Mechanic
- Mini-Games
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- UNIT9
- With
- Le Polish Bureau
- With
- Ogilvy Shanghai
- With
- Unlisted
- With
- Hornet Inc.
Objective
After two pandemic years spent apart, Coca-Cola wanted to bring multi-generational Chinese families back together for Lunar New Year — the Year of the Tiger. Ogilvy Shanghai's brief was to give grandparents, parents and kids one activity that needed no instructions and no shared vocabulary, and to tie a can purchase directly to that shared moment inside WeChat, the country's biggest social platform. The commercial target was category share growth over the Spring Festival period.
Solution
The player picks up a limited-edition tiger can, flips it over, and scans the QR code on the back, which opens a game hub inside WeChat — no app to install. The phone gets set down on a table so its camera and mic can read the whole family at once: everyone shouts together to send a tiger soaring, blinks to make tigers jump and sprint, or turns their head to steer a tiger's paw in a tabletop hockey match played with a Coca-Cola bottle cap as the puck. Each round earns "tiger coins," which are redeemed for prizes on the spot, inside the same WeChat flow. Anyone who can't make it home can switch to an AI opponent and play the same games solo.
Results
The H5 game drew 10.7 million views with a 78% unique-visitor engagement rate. Over Spring Festival, Coca-Cola's category share overtook pre-pandemic 2019 levels, up 1.6 points in volume and 0.3 points in value — a volume gain twice, and a value gain three times, that of its closest competitor. The wider campaign reached 1.6 billion impressions and drove 208 million video views (+278% year-on-year) with 35x the engagement of the prior year; a companion drop of 700 NFTs sold out in two days.
- 1
The experience is unlocked by scanning a QR code printed on a limited-edition Lunar New Year Coca-Cola can, opening directly inside the WeChat in-app browser with nothing to download or install.
- 2
The player lands in a Year-of-the-Tiger hub holding a series of short mini-games designed for several people to play together on one shared screen, with rules simple enough for any generation to pick up without instruction.
- 3
The phone is propped up so its front camera can see the players' faces and its microphone can hear them, since every game is controlled through head movement, facial expression, and voice rather than on-screen buttons.
- 4
In one mini-game, players shout together at an on-screen tiger; the louder and more in-sync the group's shout, the higher the tiger leaps.
- 5
In another, the camera tracks two players' eyes, and their blinking makes their respective tigers jump and run faster in a race.
- 6
In a tabletop-hockey mini-game, two players turn their heads left and right to steer their tiger's paws, batting a Coca-Cola bottle cap back and forth to score a goal against the opponent.
- 7
If a family member isn't physically present, an AI-controlled opponent fills their spot in any of the games, and the player can share their results with that absent relative afterward.
- 8
Each round played earns points that convert into "tiger coins," which are redeemed immediately for prizes inside the same WeChat platform, keeping the entire path from can to reward within the messenger app.
