Coca-cola considers running Chip Shop ad as part of Pride campaign

The brand has expressed interest in featuring the Vinegar-winning spec campaign, Spread The Love, which was entered into this year's awards.

Rockstar's CCO Chris Catchpole and Rockstar copywriter Sid Nair came up with the inclusive illustration for the outdoor campaign, which was intented to shine a light (literally) on the LGBTQ community.

The creatives transmuted the Coca Cola wave into a multi-coloured flare inspired by the famous Pink Floyd album cover.

After creating the spec idea for the Chip Shop Awards, the duo shared their concept with Coca Cola and were pleased to hear that they might be able to use it in Coke's Pride celebratory campaigns for 2022.

Catchpole said: "After getting two shortlists at Chip Shop, I contacted one of my ex Coke clients in Vietnam. He sent it to the marketing director in the UK who forwarded it to two senior Coke clients in Denmark, one of whom is the Coke lead for Pride.

"We had a call with one of them about a month ago and sent them a deck which they're now considering using for 2022, if budgets and timings align... who knew that the Chip Shop Awards could act as a springboard to getting spec work made."

Not the first time

A number of spec entries to the Chip Shop Awards have gone on to be usedby brands.

This year's Stay At Home spec social campaign for Guinness, which also received a Vinegar accolade, enjoyed a similar story.

The ad was originally created for and entered into 2020's OneMinuteBriefs competition.

But after Dublin-based copywriter Luke O'Reilly, who penned the ad, posted the campaign online, it was shared worldwide and quickly went viral. It even featured on adweek.com under the title, 'The perfect Guinness Ad that wasn't a real Guinness ad'.

Following its initial digital success, it wasn't long before Guinness got in touch to make the ad officially theirs to push it out across their channels internationally.

Of the experience, O'Reilly says: "I entered the spec into OneMinuteBriefs before the first lockdown in March 2020. People were still going to pubs at that stage but being encouraged to stay at home, so when I tweeted it, it struck a chord with the public and everything went a bit crazy. "

He adds: "I was contacted by the Guinness marketing team a few days after it went viral and they asked if they could share it, so I was only too happy to make a deal."

Brands are always on the look out for new ideas and creatives to collaborate with as these initially spec campaigns have proven.

The Drum's co-founder Gordon Young adds: "The Chip Ship Awards is not just about creating short and irrelevant advertising. They're a space to cultivate ideas that can run in the real world. And these two campaigns are great examples of that.

In the above video,Young further explains why the Chip Shop Awards excels at drawing in new talent and ground-breaking ideas.