The holiday season is quickly crawling upon us, and companies and advertisers can’t wait. It’s that time of the year for giving, family gatherings, and singing carols. But for advertisers, it’s the chance to push for some more sales before the end of the fiscal year.

And this occasion is especially important to Coca-Cola, since its easily relate-able red logo is one of the Christmas colors. With so many branding possibilities they can leverage with their red logo during this time, Coca-Cola has decided that, this year, they will partner up with Droga5, an advertising agency to provide consumers with a chance to design and personalize their own sweaters for the cold, perhaps snowy weather, but most importantly, to provide clothing that one can wear for those awkward family photos.

Personally, I think this is a great idea. The ability for consumers to co-create value is something that enhances the consumer’s perceived value for not only the product, but also the brand. It shows that Coca-Cola is open to the public’s ideas for its products, and that it wants to help satisfy the need to become warm during the cold season, differentiating itself from its competitors such as Pepsi. This is also an easy and fun way for Coca-Cola to encourage their loyal customer base. Finally, Coca-Cola is able to combine the situational factor of “purchase situation” with the social trend of “ugly holiday sweaters”.

Ugly Christmas sweaters started in the late 80s as an ironic fashion statement. Now, it’s a mainstream product that people love to buy as it represents Christmas and the positive affective attitudes that comes along with this occasion.

Cheers, Coca-Cola. I’ll be sure to buy one of these sweaters for the upcoming Christmas celebrations!

Here’s a link to a brief description of the product: http://adage.com/article/creativity-pick-of-the-day/granny-coke-s-sweater-generator/245319/

And the link to the Ugly Sweater Generator: https://www.cokezero.com/sweatergenerator/#/main/landing