Coca-Cola wants consumers to get a mouthful of metaverse.
The pop brand today announced Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Byte, a limited-edition soda that promises to “bring the flavor of pixels to life.”
Byte is the second flavor from Coca-Cola’s Creations line, which launched in February and is intended to “quench Gen Z’s thirst for discovery through a series of unexpected beverages and packaging designs, culturally relevant expressions and creative collaborations,” the company says.
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The first Creations flavor was Starlight, a space-themed, red-tinted edition that offered a “cooling taste sensation” and apparently comes off like a blend of mint, vanilla, and cotton candy.
Byte, on the other hand, will taste like…pixels. What do pixels taste like? Your guess is as good as anyone’s.
Coca-Cola isn’t giving any more specifics about Byte’s actual flavor, aside from saying it’s “bright,” “upfront,” and “reminiscent of powering up a game.”
And to push that gaming connection even more, Coca-Cola is hosting Byte’s big launch in Fortnite.
The game’s more than 350 million players will be able to visit Pixel Point, a custom-created island made using Fortnite’s non-combat Creative Mode. Designed by Coca-Cola and gaming org PWR, Pixel Point offers four “sensory-inspired, multiplayer mini-games”: The Castle, The Escape, The Race, and The Tower.
Based on Coca-Cola’s description of the games, they sound like virtual escape rooms, with each “[posing] its own challenge that can only be solved by working in tandem with fellow players to progress up the tower.”
On top of the Fortnite launch, Coca-Cola is dropping an augmented reality game for people who buy the real-life version of Byte. Scanning the code on their pack will give them access to a metaverse-y game about “BYTE,” an 8-bit pixel that was “left behind when Coca-Cola Byte entered the metaverse,” Coca-Cola says. Players have to guide BYTE up a virtual staircase, and those with the highest scores will be displayed on a leaderboard.
“For our second expression from Coca-Cola Creations, we wanted to create an innovative taste inspired by the playfulness of pixels, rooted in the experiences that gaming makes possible,” Oana Vlad, senior director of global strategy for Coca-Cola, said in a statement.
Byte is available today in “extremely limited quantites” in Latin America. It expands to the United States on May 2, and will be “exclusively available to purchase in twin packs of 12.5-oz. slim cans online,” according to Coca-Cola. It’ll go on to launch in China in May 23.
