Coca-Cola: Aquarius University Soccer Festival

Aquarius, Coca-Cola's isotonic drink, wanted to engage younger consumers in Myanmar and created the Aquarius University Soccer Festival, a soccer league across 12 public universities. The tournament was designed to be more than football: a platform for the brand to become part of student life.

The communications challenge was sustaining interest over a multi-week tournament. Match results alone would not keep students, and the media, engaged with the brand day after day.

The team asked where the most interesting conversations in any tournament happen, and the answer was the locker room. Ruder Finn Era, then ERA Communications, created The Locker Room, a reinvented daily newsletter shared throughout the festival.

Each edition carried fun facts, a profile of the man of the match and behind-the-scenes content from the universities, published on Coca-Cola's social channels so the tournament had a daily story to tell. At the end of the festival a printed edition was produced and sent to every participant as a token of appreciation, turning the content into a keepsake that extended the brand's relationship with the players.