Coca-Cola Korea turns the trusted Blue Ribbon rating red — Grand Effie Korea

Korea chooses restaurants by the Blue Ribbon Survey, the country's first restaurant rating book, trusted since 2005; a blue ribbon at the door means a kitchen worth travelling to. Coca-Cola Korea, meanwhile, had perfect distribution and universal awareness but no seat at that ritual — the drink was present in every fridge and absent from every decision about where to eat.

The campaign recast the authority in its own color. Coke and Blue Ribbon jointly selected restaurants whose food and atmosphere genuinely pair with Coca-Cola — 550 places in the 2024 list — and gave each a Red Ribbon plaque and certification sticker. The 'Red Ribbon Restaurant List' was then published inside Naver Map, KakaoMap and the Blue Ribbon site, so the mark worked where diners actually decide.

The mechanics fed themselves: merchants applied for a seal that cost them nothing but made them recommendable; consumers found the list inside apps they already open before every meal; and the positioning — 'great restaurants serve Coca-Cola' — made the brand the logical next order. In 2025 the list grew by about 600 to more than 1,500 restaurants, and eight renowned chefs staged a 'Red Ribbon Week' of special menus.

Judged on strategy, execution, consumer response and business results, the Effie Korea jury gave the campaign its top honor — the Grand Effie — in August 2025, the first time Coca-Cola Korea claimed the country's most effective campaign prize. A year later it won again, for the Coca-Cola X Sinheung Market project, the first brand in Effie Korea history to take the Grand Effie in consecutive years.