Coca-Cola Goes Big to Celebrate 125 Years

Imagine you are put in charge of the 125th anniversary celebration of the world’s largest soft drink maker. You have the resources to do just about anything. You could come with new packaging, new merchandise or sponsor a special anniversary concert featuring some of the biggest names in music.

The people running the show at Coca-Cola have done all of those things and more. They decided to light up all 26 stories of the company headquarters building in Atlanta. It doesn’t sound like much until you see the show that is part of the largest building illumination in the world.



(Click here if you can’t see the video.)

The Coke building will be lit up 3 nights a week throughout the month of May. And the show changes every time to include photos sent in by fans of Coca-Cola on Facebook and Twitter.

You don’t have to be as large as Coke to think big like them. Maybe it’s as simple as figuring out how to use your own customer’s experiences in your marketing. Or casting aside the standard ways of reaching your audience and trying something new. The best way to grow your business is to think big.

Want Your Best Work? Get Inspired

The other day I was thumbing through a copy of Sports Illustrated when I came across an article on Dick and Rick Hoyt. The Hoyts are hardly well known sports figures, despite their athletic accomplishments. Rick Hoyt has cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair. One day in 1977 he asked his dad to push him in a 5 mile fun run.

Who knew what started with that race would lead them to running the Boston Marathon and eventually competing in the Ironman triathlon. Dick and Rick have participated in hundreds of distance races all over the world for more than 30 years.



I can only imagine how many people have been touched by the Hoyts’ story. It is hard to watch it and not feel something deep inside. It’s the kind of feeling that makes you want to do something special. That feeling is inspiration.

We often get inspiration confused with motivation. Motivation is what makes you get out of bed and go to work every day. We are motivated by many different things: money, power, security, fame. Business leaders spend hours of time and huge amounts of money trying to figure out the best ways to motivate their employees. “If only I can find a way to get them to do more…”

Companies would be better off if the focus were on inspiring their people instead of motivating them. It’s when we are truly inspired that we come up with innovative ideas and do our best work.

So where does inspiration come from? The answer is very simple. We get inspiration from other people. The stories of others are what inspire us the most. Seeing how someone overcomes their own struggles can spark us to reach new heights. Maybe you’ve never ran a marathon. But thinking about Dick Hoyt pushing his son in a wheelchair for 26.2 miles just might inspire you to give it a try.