Coca-Cola Embarks on Expedition into Social Media Frontier

January is drawing near and as it does global beverage manufacturer Coca-Cola is gearing up to launch its most adventurous social media effort yet. Announced back in mid-November, the Expedition 206 campaign is sending three lucky fans, or “happiness ambassadors” as they have been dubbed by Coke, on a journey to search for happiness all over the world.

Once 2010 rolls around, Toño, Kelly and Tony will begin their yearlong journey in Madrid, Spain and will travel approximately 275,000 miles across the globe, stopping in each of the 206 countries where Coca-Cola is sold. Along the way the trio will be documenting their journey and interacting with other consumers via a variety of social media tools including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. Additionally, the group’s journey will be documented on the official Expedition 205 website, www.expedition206.com.

What is so unprecedented about this campaign? Well, unlike the social media efforts of the majority of Fortune 500 companies, this campaign is solely centered on the communications efforts of three consumers. Expedition 206 is unique in that it is one of the first large-scale corporate social media campaigns to essentially surrender the brand and give its social media reins to consumers to represent the brand how the brand is portrayed. With their mission set, it is likely that the Coke “happiness ambassadors” will be able to really connect with consumers in other countries on a level that marketers can’t do themselves or from an office cubicle in Atlanta. In this way Coca-Cola is using social media to make the brand not only about consumers, but extremely accessible to them as well.

Toño, Kelly, Tony and Coca-Cola will face some challenges as they cross into un-chartered territory when it comes to their social media efforts and how they are seen, particularly in countries that are sensitive to outside journalistic reporting globally. Are they considered freelance journalists? Nomads? Only time (and social media) will reveal where the quest for happiness takes these three lucky travelers.

Be on the lookout for Toño, Kelly and Tony to be hitting the social media scene come January. Here some ways to stay updated on the group’s travels:

Website: www.expedition206.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/x206
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cocacola
YouTube: www.youtube.com/expedition206