Inside look: Coke’s ‘Happiness Machine’ garners 1.5M views

Viral video uses unscripted format, but creative team carefully plans process and visuals

(Editor’s Note: Ragan’s third annual Social Media for Communicators conference kicks off today at Coca-Cola Co. headquarters in Atlanta.)

How do you communicate happiness? And how do you communicate it so well that millions of people embrace the concept? Coca-Cola has grappled with this challenge since launching its “Open Happiness” advertising and marketing initiative in early 2009.

A viral video featuring a “Happiness Machine”—a vending machine that doles out everything from Cokes to pizzas—appears to have met this challenge, garnering more than 1.5 million views since it was posted on YouTube in mid-January.