MAM
Coca-Cola new holiday campaign set to ‘Shake Up Christmas’
MUMBAI: Beverage conglomerate Coca-Cola has announced plans for a new global marketing campaign that taps the heritage of traditional imagery used by Coca-Cola such as Santa Claus, the Coca-Cola Christmas “caravan” delivery trucks and even a nod to the Coca-Cola Polar Bear. The campaign will also include a new song written by the band Train Shake Up Christmas.
An extension of the global Open Happiness marketing platform, the campaign will be deployed in more than 90 countries around the world through a new television commercial, digital experiences, in-store promotions and packaging.
It represents the first new creative used in a global holiday campaign for the Coca-Cola brand since “Christmas Caravan” that featured holiday themed delivery trucks.
Coca-Cola senior VP Sparkling Brands Shay Drohan says, “We know that during the holiday season people are looking for moments of inspiration to remind them how special the holidays are and connect them with friends and family. “Our 2010 holiday campaign shows how a catalyst such as the spirit of the holidays, the festive images of Santa Claus, a memorable holiday tune or sharing a Coca-Cola can inspire moments of happiness and bring people together.”
The global campaign, developed through a collaboration of marketing teams at Coca-Cola Germany along with the global brand team, will launch around the world next month. The new television commercial “Snow Globe” illustrates the theme of the campaign of how people find happiness through the simple moments of connecting with friends and family that are inspired by Coca-Cola.
The spot, created in partnership with McCann, Madrid, opens with several vignettes of individuals who are obviously feeling separated from friends and family – a young man working late at night in a grocery store, a couple on opposite ends of a park bench, even a lonely dog in an alley. The shot pans out to show they exist in a glass snow globe sitting on Santa’s workshop desk. Santa is taking a break to have a Coca-Cola and he is inspired to pick up the snow globe and gently tilt it as Train’s “Shake Up Christmas” plays.
This causes the Coca-Cola Christmas Caravan delivery trucks to roll into action and brings the couple together on the bench. The action also sends the grocery clerk tumbling into a shopping cart and rolling through the streets of the city, only to end up bursting through the front door of the home where his family awaits him for a holiday meal along with the no-longer-lonely pup.
The soundtrack from Train provides lyrics that echo the same emotion — “Shake it up/ Shake up the happiness/ Wake it up/ Wake up the happiness/ Come on y’all/ It’s Christmas time.” The song features prominently in the campaign and will be promoted through live performances by Train on their current tour.
The strategy of having a commercially released song that is tied to a Coca-Cola campaign follows the success of Wavin’ Flag by K’Naan which was adapted by Coca-Cola for its 2010 Fifa World Cup campaign this past summer.
Train lead vocalist and founding member Pat Monahan says, “The holiday season is one of the best times of the year. The song Shake Up Christmas is inspired by childhood memories of spending time with family and sharing the happiness and hope that the season brings. Having it be part of the Coca-Cola campaign is a wonderful way to share that sentiment with a bigger audience. We are looking forward to performing it for our fans during the coming weeks.”
Shake Up Christmas produced by Butch Walker, will be released as a single worldwide. The song is included as a bonus track on the deluxe version of Train’s latest album Save Me, San Francisco (Golden Gate Edition) which debuts globally on 2 November and will be released by Sony Music.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
