If you think personalization in marketing campaigns is a thing of the past, think again. #ShareACoke is an iconic campaign that has worldwide recognition. What began as a clever twist of replacing Coca-Cola’s brand logo with common names became a global cultural movement. But it wasn’t just about names on bottles; it was about people seeing themselves in a product and sharing that moment, both online and off.

A recent Share a Coke activation in Kenya didn’t try to reinvent the bottle. It asked a simpler question: how do we bring that feeling back and turn it into a symbol of identity and shared experiences?

Brief and objective

The goal of the campaign was to spark an authentic cultural buzz among Kenyan youth, aged 18 to 35, turning Coca-Cola bottles into symbols of identity, friendship, and shared experience. Rather than a single polished ad, priority was given to distributed authenticity to make the campaign feel local, human, and memorable.

The switch

Conventional marketing wisdom says to use a mega celebrity to guarantee reach and safety. That’s predictable, and predictability rarely makes culture.

This activation flipped the script. Instead of one big voice, the campaign seeded the moment across 100 nano creators: people with smaller, local but deeply engaged followings. The result looked less like an orchestrated ad buy and more like a movement emerging from the ground up. With ripple effects, genuine reactions, and conversations that felt owned by communities rather than broadcast to them.

“As an influencer, the Share a Coke campaign was special because it felt so personal. Seeing our names and phrases we use every day on the bottles made it easy to connect with my audience in a real way. The big takeaway for me is that personalization and cultural relevance are what truly resonate with Kenyans.” Naomi – Kenyan influencer

The playbook

This is how the movement was engineered to reach over 12 million unique users and 84K+ engagements:

1. The creators were chosen for local credibility and the kinds of relationships they had with their audiences. Micro-reach plus high relevance beats celebrity reach plus low relevance.

1. Creators received storytelling prompts and emotional cues, not line-by-line copy. That liberty produced content that felt lived in rather than read from a script.

1. Posting windows were coordinated to create concentrated visibility without making every piece of content look identical. The goal was momentum, not monotony.

1. Content showed bottles in real places, such as in shops/supermarkets, and house parties, so the idea that a bottle could carry identity felt plausible and immediate.

What changed in the social feed?

Instead of one polished ad, social media feeds were filled with varied, bite-sized stories. The diversity in the content made the campaign feel familiar and shareable.

The cultural lift came from many small acts of recognition rather than one big act of persuasion.

Tactical lessons you can steal

1. Curate for community, not follower count. A hundred genuine, small voices stitched together create cultural texture in a way a single branded moment rarely can.

1. Brief for scenes, not scripts. Prompts that spark memory and personal stories perform better than prescriptive scripts. Authenticity looks like choice, not conformity.

1. Orchestrate timing to avoid uniformity. Sequenced posts that overlap create visibility spikes that algorithms reward. Momentum looks organic when you’ve designed it carefully.

1. Design for shareability, not virality. Make it easy for people to make the idea their own. Simple actions, local language, and familiar places beat complicated activations.

1. Measure engagement in cultural terms. Beyond clicks and impressions, track dialogue, user replication, and whether content turns into conversations offline.

Why this matters

This is a playbook for turning an iconic brand cue into something that feels newly local. The real insight isn’t that nano creators reach people; they do. The insight is that when brands treat cultural moments as communal property instead of broadcast opportunities, the work becomes more memorable, more human, and more likely to stick.

“As an influencer who partook in the #ShareACoke campaign, I think it was successful because it invested in concerts and community activations, giving consumers opportunities to interact with the brand beyond advertisements. Through strong distribution and visibility in both urban and rural Kenya, the campaign reinforced Coca-Cola’s presence and loyalty.” Beryl – Kenyan Influencer

Final note

If your objective is cultural momentum rather than temporary awareness, think small, loud, and local. Hand the moment to the people who live in your brand’s neighborhoods and ask them to tell the story in their own words. People don’t remember ads. They remember how a moment made them feel, and that’s where small, authentic creators win.

Ready to elevate your next campaign? Reach out to Ted, a Senior Business Development Executive at Twiva, on +254 721 284 272 or at ted.muganda@twiva.com.