Finalist
Print
Craft: Art Direction Campaign

Coca-Cola has appeared in thousands of classic novels—not as product placement, but as part of the cultural fabric of everyday life.

Leading up to World Book Day, the Classic campaign brought those real mentions out of the pages and into the world through beautifully crafted executions that honored both the stories and the era they were written in.

We found real passages where Coca-Cola appeared, then recreated them with extreme craft—matching typefaces, layouts, and line breaks from first editions. The brand’s iconic logo replaced its mention in the text, applied with a custom-built stamp and original letterpress techniques to preserve authenticity.

The creative challenge was authenticity to the original material. No added copy. No visuals. Just pure design, typography, and craft doing all the storytelling. The result was a campaign that didn’t shout—but whispered something undeniable: Coca-Cola has always been part of the story.

In this moment, when reading, audiobooks, and podcasts are booming, we found an opportunity for our campaign that taps directly into this resurged interest in imagination and storytelling.

We didn't do it by writing new stories. We shared ones that already existed where Coca-Cola appears—authentic and unaltered.

At a time when brands are fighting to insert themselves into stories, we reminded people that Coca-Cola was already there, woven into the canon—not product placement, but cultural placement.

Our Classic campaign was brought to life in the most classic way. We scoured pages of literature for mentions of Coca-Cola, which were then recreated.

Every print and OOH was crafted to look like a page from the first editions—matching original typefaces, layouts, and even using the same publishing technique they used before: letterpress printing. Only one detail was changed: the written “Coca-Cola” was replaced with the iconic logo.

Radio and film took the same craft-intensive approach. Our scripts, written by some of the greatest authors in history, were brought to life through original readings. The films were typed out letter by letter on typewriters that were the exact models the authors used to write their novels.

The scale wasn’t just media reach—it was cultural resonance. Readers, writers, and everyday fans shared the work not as ads, but as rediscoveries of literature.

Since its launch on April 7 and leading up to World Book Day on April 23rd, the Classic campaign has driven strong emotional engagement, critical acclaim, and measurable reach—with results still being gathered at time of submission.

Within the initial month of launch, we saw 829 million unique site visitors across earned publications.

Headlines from outlets like Fast Company and The Drum praised the campaign’s originality, describing it as “a clever way to remind viewers that Coca-Cola has been part of culture long before e-readers” and “a campaign that goes quiet while the rest of marketing gets louder.”

Brand sentiment has been overwhelmingly positive, reaching 97%.

Across media:

Radio reached 7% of upmarket adults (2.2M)

Cinema reached 5% (1.5M)

Print reached 5.5% (1.75M)

Beyond the numbers, the campaign sparked something deeper: a collective moment of rediscovery—of brand, of culture, and of stories that were waiting to be read.