Trust Africa news By Olanira Mariam and Ayomide Otitoju
Loreta Eloho. We are handling the experiential part of it from Brands Optima. We are the ones handling the entire experience, the entire design.
Can you tell me more about Coca-Cola, something they are doing for Christmas for children?
This is the Coca-Cola Christmas wonderland and we are trying to create an ambience or an environment for people to come and be happy, merry, give back to Nigerians and give back to everybody. In the spirit of happiness and sherry Coca-Cola wonderland was best. We want people to come to a good place where they can be happy, see a lot of beautiful things and have a great time. Have free drinks, free popcorn, free food. Just have a good time. That is what we are trying to create this Christmas period. It is all about giving and we are here to do that as Coca-Cola.
Can you tell me more about giving popcorn? Is it to make the children come?
We are giving out gifts as a form of encouragement and all that. There is a lucky dip, so whatever you dip is what you win, Santa Clause is going to give you whatever gift you win from the lucky dip. Then we are giving out popcorn because you come all the way out and you need to be refreshed. So, our way of making you refreshed and saying thank you for coming is by giving you drinks, giving you popcorn and giving you gifts to take back home.
Can you tell me more about Father Christmas?
Father Christmas is an age long tradition. He is somebody that brings gifts, represents happiness and giving at this period of the year, so it is only fine and good for us to incorporate that into making people happy of which we did and he is representing, making people happy and giving out gifts. For instance, for our lucky dip, whatever you pick, you get, Father Christmas hands over the gift to you because that is the history of Father Christmas, that is what they are known for- giving and giving and giving especially at this time of the year.
What is the idea behind wonderland?
We wanted the wonderland to be very artistic, we wanted to create a very interesting consumer journey which we were able to do because we don’t have this kind of wonderland anywhere. We lit up the tree on the 11th, also we had representatives of the first lady of Lagos state. We had the commissioner for art and culture here, we had a couple of other people from Lagos state, top dignitaries were here to light up the tree and officially open the ceremony to the general public. We infuse art into our design to create a wonderland, art and life. It is a blend of lots of life and lots of art to create a beautiful ambience for everybody to be comfortable and be happy. We just want people to bask in the amazement of wonderland.
I see some many crates you use to tie the house, is that the design?
We use crates of coke to create our tree and some other props around. This is because we are trying to infuse the brand into whatever thing that we are doing. Coca-Cola is doing this and we are at the centre of it all. The crates represent us, so a creative way of using the crates is to use it to build our Christmas tree that is about 70 feet tall which is very huge. So, using the crates means putting us at the centre of it.
How was the feeling like for the children when they came here?
Everybody was fascinated by the entire ambience, the design. We have been the talk of the town like everybody has been talking about it. This is really amazing and it is something we will continue doing yearly.
What do you think about the Lagos state government support?
I think they have been very supportive if you ask me. They were here, they sent in their representatives to give support and they are open to such innovative ideas like this. So far so good they have been very supportive.
