Bebaskan-La

Coca-Cola’s popularity among Malaysia youth was waning because of an explosion of healthier beverages and the fact that its advertising was being drowned out by the jumbo budgets of telecoms companies. 2008 was a tough year, with a deepening recession and a youthful rebellion against the ruling party. Coke needed to find a way of tapping into the stubbornly optimistic youth and establish itself as the drink that truly expressed the national mood.

2008 had seen the rise of two youth icons that had captivated the imagination of the country. The first was Shila, an everyday girl from a small town, who rose from the streets to win the largest reality singing show on TV. The second was Alam, the village underdog who won the biggest dance show. Coca Cola took the two icons, and signed up an iconic lyricist to create a music video –Free Yourself (or Bebaskan-lah in Malay) – where Coke was integrated as the fuel of refreshing liberation and positivity. Coke’s jingle was also laced into the fabric of the song.

The major advertising element was a TV commercial, but it also brought in radio and online. The video became self-propagating, with friends forwarding it to friends, posting it on blogs and on YouTube, colleagues showing it to each other and on-air requests creating a pull-mechanism. Bebaskan-lah! became the anthem of the times by plugging into and giving expression to the spirit of the period in a language that truly connected with youth – in a way that was so very uniquely Coca-Cola.

The campaign was hugely successful in sales terms, achieving a volume growth of 280,000 unit cases. Coca-Cola’s preference score hit a record five-year high, rising 177% across the year, overwhelming all other brands in the category put together. - The song itself reached No. 1 within 2 weeks and was also made a theme song for a popular local youth drama, A Story of Hope.