The World Needs More Santas
Reigniting Coca-Cola’s 92-year-old bond with Santa Claus into the Coca-Cola Christmas Platform — rolled out across 80 markets, activated through nearly 60 countries on the road, and extended into Hollywood.
Reigniting Coca-Cola’s global Christmas iconicity.
Coca-Cola’s bond with Santa Claus goes back to 1931, when illustrator Haddon Sundblom painted the warm, rosy-cheeked Santa the world still recognizes today — appearing in The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies’ Home Journal, and National Geographic for over three decades. It’s one of advertising’s most enduring pieces of iconography. But over the years, as the brand chased other stories, that special connection started to fade.
The insight was simple: there were more grinches in the world than Cindy-Lou Whos, and Coca-Cola — one of the most ubiquitous global brands — was sitting on a direct line to the world’s most ubiquitous holiday. Nobody had more permission to bring Santa back than the company that helped define him.
As Chief Strategy Officer for WPP Open X on the global Trademark Coca-Cola business, I led the strategy behind “The World Needs More Santas,” a platform built on the idea that everyone has an inner Santa. It launched with a PR trip to Santa’s official home in Rovaniemi, Lapland, rolled out across 80 markets, and extended into a Hollywood short-film anthology made with Imagine Entertainment.
We set out to reclaim our role as a Christmas icon.
By putting ourselves at the center of the holiday, we knew we could unlock greater potential for the brand and the bottom line. It was time to tap into the real emotions and human spirit of this special time of year.
Nearly 40% of our audience was losing their emotional connection with the holiday. People weren’t turning away from the holiday itself — they had lost touch with its true spirit amid overblown expectations and superficial clutter. Simply put, their inner Santas had gone dormant.
No one represents the true meaning of the Christmas holiday quite like Santa himself — a metaphor for the kindness and generosity of this magical season.
The world always needs reminders of what makes us more human. The core of humanity is kindness, generosity, and goodwill, and I think we need that reminder right now. It’s a great opportunity to combine it with the Christmas spirit and deliver the message that everyone has an inner Santa.
Beyond the ad campaign, Santa needed to live somewhere audiences already were: entertainment.
“The Santa Stories” brought Coca-Cola into Hollywood territory with two short films on Amazon Prime Video and Freevee, co-developed with Imagine Entertainment and production company PrettyBird, with a cast led by Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard, Steven Caple Jr., Scoot McNairy, and Colm Meaney.
On an island off the coast of Ireland, a reclusive fisherman known to his neighbors as “The No Man” has a message in a bottle wash up that changes his outlook on life.
Santa lands behind bars on Christmas Eve, accused of a robbery actually pulled off by thieves disguised as him. Detective Grinchauser, played by Octavia Spencer, interrogates him while a small-time crook tries to break the real Santa out to save Christmas.
A Christmas Caravan, ringing in the season.
We brought a Christmas Caravan across the world to ring in the 2023 holiday season and bring back the magic of Christmas with the iconic Coca-Cola Santa — reaching nearly 60 countries and more than 1,000 stops in person.
Delivering magic around the world.
In Toronto, many of the 200,000 Filipino workers send balikbayan boxes home to their families in the Philippines. This Christmas, we created custom-designed balikbayan boxes to deliver Coca-Cola magic to many families. The campaign was a success, and in 2024, Coca-Cola expanded it globally.
Similar local activations were created in regions around the world — each one its own act of inner-Santa kindness from the brand.
Success Highlights
92 Years in the Making
Reignited Coca-Cola’s decades-long bond with Santa Claus through “The World Needs More Santas,” a global trademark platform that launched across 80 markets.
From Lapland to Hollywood
Launched with press in Santa’s official home of Rovaniemi, then extended into a short-film anthology with Imagine Entertainment, starring Octavia Spencer and directed by Bryce Dallas Howard and Steven Caple Jr.
An Exceptional Score
Rated 5.3 stars on System1’s effectiveness scale — a threshold only 1% of ads reach — and ranked in the top 6% for distinctiveness by Kantar.
Real Business Impact
The Coca-Cola Caravan Truck Tour reached nearly 60 countries, over 1,000 stops, and more than 16 million consumers in person, while the full campaign drove roughly 9 billion social impressions. The activation contributed to volume and value share gains for Trademark Coca-Cola, with global unit case volume up 2% for the quarter. View Q4 2023 report →
- AdweekUnpacks the strategy behind “The World Needs More Santas” campaign
- ComplexCovers the Lapland launch, including Octavia Spencer’s unscripted line
- The DrumDetails the Hollywood short-film anthology made with Imagine Entertainment
- Creative SalonReviews the anthology short films starring Octavia Spencer
- HypebeastCovers Celeste’s cover of “I Could Be Santa Claus” for the campaign
- LBBOnlineBreaks down the creative behind the campaign
- Marketing WeekReports the campaign’s “exceptional” 5.3-star System1 effectiveness rating
Awards
Talented Partners
Agency
WPP Open X
VML
Creative
Andrew Keller
OpenX CCORafa Pitanguy
Deputy Global CCO, VMLSimon Lloyd
CCOStrategy
Claudia Reeder
GSDJune Fong
GSDClient Leadership
Kyla Jeffers
Global Category PresidentStephanie DeCelles
Global Client LeadDaniel Lipman
Integration LeadProduction Partners
Imagine Entertainment
PrettyBird