Coca-Cola wants to turn UGC into campaign voice for FIFA World Cup push

New Delhi: Coca-Cola is putting user-generated fan expression at the centre of its FIFA World Cup campaign in India, inviting football fans to become part of the brand’s social storytelling through their real, hoarse match-day voices. Titled “The Lost Voices”, the campaign is built around the idea that India’s football fans often lose their voices while cheering for global teams during the World Cup. Coca-Cola will feature these real voices on its social media feed through the tournament season, turning fan participation into the campaign’s creative device. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Coca-Cola India (@cocacola_india) The campaign, launched under Coca-Cola’s global “Feel It All” platform, taps into India’s football-following culture, where fans in states such as Kerala, Goa, Assam and West Bengal support international teams with strong local rituals, viewing communities and emotional investment. Instead of using only scripted brand communication, Coca-Cola is using the sound of fandom as campaign content. The brand said the idea is to celebrate fans whose passion is “so authentic that they literally lose their voices cheering”. Karthik Subramanian, Senior Director, Marketing, Coca-Cola TM India and Southwest Asia, said, “Through our longstanding association with FIFA, Coca-Cola has always celebrated the passion, togetherness and shared emotions that football inspires. In India, millions of fans support teams from across the world with extraordinary devotion, proving that football fandom goes far beyond borders.” “With The Lost Voices, we're celebrating those fans whose passion is so authentic that they literally lose their voices cheering. By turning their real voices into the voice of our campaign, we're recognising the communities, rituals and emotions that make every World Cup unforgettable,” he added. Conceptualised by Ogilvy India, the campaign places real fans, rather than actors, at the heart of the brand’s storytelling. The idea converts a common match-viewing behaviour into a participatory content format, allowing Coca-Cola to build its FIFA communication around fan submissions and social media amplification. Sukesh Nayak, Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy India, said, “The World Cup brings out fans for teams like Brazil and Argentina from across India. Their passion and emotions run so deep, watching a live match with them is probably the most vivid rollercoaster ride of emotions.” “With this idea of celebrating the most passionate fans, who feel it all, we are making their passionate, lost voices the voice of our campaign. They and their lost voices will become the voice of the brand,” he said. For Coca-Cola, the campaign extends its long association with football by shifting attention from celebrity-led or team-led communication to community-led content. The campaign also reflects a wider shift in brand storytelling, where fan behaviour, comments, reactions, sounds and rituals are increasingly being treated as campaign assets. By asking fans to contribute their voices, Coca-Cola is creating a UGC-led format that can keep evolving across match days, teams and fan communities.