Ad Campaigns
Give the Coke bottle a second life; use its cap optimally
NEW DELHI: Coca-Cola has launched a new activation campaign as part of its global sustainability programne aimed at upscaling used Coca-Cola bottles to encourage consumers to re-use and recycle plastic.
‘2nd Lives’ is a project being done with Ogilvy & Mather China and has been rolled out first in Vietnam with select Asian markets to follow.
‘2nd Lives’ includes a line of 16 innovative caps which can be screwed onto bottles after consumption, transforming them into fun and useful objects, such as a paintbrush, water squirter and pencil sharpener, among others. The bottle caps are gifted to customers upon purchase of a Coke bottle.
“We are always looking for better solutions to reduce the use of plastic and increase recycling around the world. The variety of our ‘2nd Lives’ caps shows that there are many creative ways to re-use plastic simply and practically, and also supports our global sustainability programme. We have created fun tools with Coke bottle tops, bringing small moments of happiness into people’s lives. We hope to make a positive impact and empower people to lead happier lives,” said Coca-Cola ASEAN director integrated marketing communications Leonardo O’Grady.
‘2nd Lives’ was piloted in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in March, with an expected 40,000 bottle caps to be gifted throughout the country this year. The campaign is set to launch in Thailand and Indonesia at a later date.
“The idea has universal appeal and can therefore be replicated in other markets, beyond Asia. These unique bottle caps are changing consumers’ behaviour and mindsets with an incredibly simple, yet clever, idea. It’s not about high tech capabilities, just creative thinking,” said Ogilvy & Mather Beijing executive creative director Juggi Ramakrishnan.
NATIONAL: Amazon Ads has laid out a sharply tech-led vision for the advertising industry in 2026, arguing that artificial intelligence, streaming TV and creator partnerships will combine to turn brand building into a more precise, performance-driven business.
At the heart of the shift, the company says, is the fusion of AI with Amazon’s vast trove of shopping, browsing and streaming signals, allowing advertisers to move beyond blunt reach metrics to campaigns designed around real customer behaviour.
“The future of advertising is not about reaching more people, but the right people with messages that resonate,” said Amazon Ads India head and vice president Girish Prabhu. “By combining AI with deep customer insights, we help brands move from broadcasting campaigns to having meaningful conversations wherever audiences spend their time.”
One of the biggest changes, according to Amazon Ads, will be the collapse of the wall between media planning and creative development. Retail media, powered by first-party data, is increasingly shaping everything from brand discovery to final purchase, pushing marketers to design campaigns around audience insight rather than internal instinct.
AI is also moving from a support tool to a creative engine. Agentic AI, which automates and accelerates production, is expected to make high-quality creative accessible even to small businesses, compressing weeks of work into hours and giving challengers the ability to compete with larger brands on speed and scale.
Behind the scenes, AI-driven analytics will take on a bigger role in campaign optimisation, identifying patterns, spotting opportunities and recommending actions that would previously have required teams of analysts.
Streaming TV is another big battleground. With India’s video streaming audience now above 600 million and connected TV users at 129.2 million in 2025, advertisers are set to treat streaming not just as a branding channel but as a performance engine, measured increasingly by sales, sign-ups and bookings rather than just reach.
Finally, Amazon Ads sees creators and contextual advertising reshaping how brands tell stories. Creators will act less like influencers and more like long-term partners, while scene-aware ads on streaming platforms will allow brands to insert hyper-relevant offers into the flow of what viewers are watching.
Taken together, Amazon Ads argues, these shifts mark a move towards advertising that is both more human and more measurable, where AI handles the complexity, and creativity does the persuading.
