Coca-Cola holiday truck tour celebrates 24th year in Georgia
Coca-Cola Holiday Caravan in Georgia
For millions of people around the world, the Coca-Cola Christmas Caravan is a sign that there is very little time left until the New Year.
Many no longer remember that this noisy, glittering convoy of trucks first appeared on the streets of Tbilisi and other Georgian cities when there was neither light nor New Year’s spirit in the country.
How did it all start and why did Coca-Cola become associated with the New Year?
History of the Coca-Cola Caravan
For the 1995 New Year and Christmas holidays, Coca-Cola decided to come up with something new. Something that would connect this brand even more closely with the New Year holiday and become just as much a New Year symbol as Santa and the polar bears.
The development of this idea was carried out by the creative agency W.B. Instructed by Doner. Very soon this company came back with the idea of a New Year’s caravan.
Preparations began for the first, historic caravan to hit the 1995 commercial. The best models of large trucks were selected and decorated with light bulbs. 30,000 festive lamps were used to illuminate the first caravan. The lighting of the trucks was commissioned by the Industrial Light and Magic company, which had previously participated in the filming of the Star Wars.
When the commercial was finished, Coca-Cola aired it on television, but at the time, no one knew what effect the new commercial would have.
However, the reaction of the spectators exceeded all expectations. The ad became an instant hit, and the music used in it is still inseparable from the anticipation of miracles and celebrations.
Georgia and Coca-Cola caravan
Georgia also joined worldwide celebration of New Year, and the first trucks of Coca-Cola New Year caravan appeared in Tbilisi in 1997. It is noteworthy that Georgia was the first in the former USSR republics where a caravan appeared. In Russia, for example, caravans only appeared in the late 2000s.
The idea of reviving this Coca-Cola New Year advertisement in Georgia belongs to Coca-Cola Bottlers Georgia General Manager Temur Chkonia.
The first Georgian caravan consisted of three trucks and moved only along the streets of Tbilisi.
In the lightless, poor and sad city of the 1990s, the red, crunching caravan became the only New Year’s Eve sight for many children.
Children and adults alike took to the streets to wave at this New Year’s fairy tale that was coming down their street.
Coca-Cola’s promotional song became a New Year’s motif: “You have to believe that a miracle is happening, you will be blessed with a New Year…… New Year, New Year…”
In the following years, Georgian caravans appeared not only in other cities of Georgia, but also in neighboring countries of the Caucasus region.
24 years have passed since the first caravan trip. As always, this year, about 2-3 months before the New Year, preparations for one of the main New Year events began.
This year, the Coca-Cola caravan set off on December 23 and drove through the streets of Tbilisi for the 24th time. The pandemic has made adjustments to its New Year plans – the caravan will only travel around the capital this year:
