Sprite Builds A Single Global Platform to Connect Innovation, Culture, And Experience

For global brands, the shift away from fragmented campaigns is becoming structural. Increasingly, marketers are replacing short-term bursts of activity with persistent platforms designed to scale across product, partnerships, and experiences. Sprite’s new global platform, It’s That Fresh, is a prime example of this evolution. Rolled out across 180 markets, the system unifies everything from innovation to cultural activations under a single idea: delivering ultimate refreshment with a street culture edge. The move signals how large brands are beginning to operate less like campaign machines and more like cohesive brand ecosystems.

Leading the effort is Oana Vlad, Vice President of Global Brand Strategy for Sprite at The Coca-Cola Company. Vlad previously led global strategy for Coke Zero and the Coca-Cola Creations platform, where she helped introduce new applications of AR and AI into brand building. She now oversees Sprite’s next phase, focused on scaling a unified platform across markets. Her role reflects a broader shift in global marketing leadership, where the challenge is not just defining a brand, but operationalizing it consistently across touchpoints.

"We’re always trying to stay close to how people experience the brand and talk about it. That’s what inspires how we show up and the innovations we bring to market," says Vlad. For established brands, maintaining that connection is often the hardest part. The tension lies in bridging heritage with modern culture in a way that feels credible. Sprite’s approach suggests that the answer is not to overwrite the past, but to reinterpret it through the lens of current consumer behavior. In doing so, the brand positions itself to evolve alongside culture rather than chase it.

• A dual identity: Vlad’s strategy hinges on a core philosophy of respecting the brand's heritage while continuously reinventing how it shows up in the world. The approach recognizes that the brand's two foundational pillars, intense product refreshment and an authentic cultural edge, must coexist. "Refreshment has to be ultimate, intense, and super dynamic in how we show it, talk about it, and how it's experienced," she notes. "But Sprite has also been an irreverent brand throughout time, and that's something that we really want to protect and keep on building and reinventing for new generations as well."

• Beats by design: Sprite is building its platform as a multi-sensory system, where refreshment is something you can see, feel, and hear. That means leaning into live experiences, from Waterbomb music festival to immersive city activations, where the brand can show up in real time. To tie it all together, Sprite partnered with producer DJ Mustard to create a sonic identity designed to be as iconic as its visuals. "He was inspired by the experience of drinking a Sprite and how it builds up and gets really intense," Vlad explains. "He was the core partner that brought the creativity and the point of view for how this should sound."

At the center of the platform is an always-on social listening engine that functions as a form of real-time R&D. Sprite is using it to translate organic consumer behavior into both product innovation and brand expression. Vlad points to the Sprite Challenge as a key example, where fans described the experience in vivid terms like "lightning" and "jumper cables," language that now informs how the brand defines refreshment. She says that same approach allows Sprite to identify emerging cultural signals and scale them into new offerings. "Sprite + Tea started as a viral social trend, and Sprite Chill was inspired by the mixology culture we see both on social media and in our successful platform at McDonald's."

• A rightful return: Nowhere is this blend of heritage and modern culture more visible than in the platform's new tentpole initiative: an expanded NBA partnership. Vlad frames the move as an authentic "homecoming" that aims to balance the brand's deep heritage in basketball with a modern need to engage Gen Z at the intersection of sports, fashion, and music. "We are returning to our rightful place as a partner of the NBA, and it's our first true global partnership. Basketball is a huge passion point for our audience, but it's also a space that today shapes sports, inclusivity, fashion, and music," she notes. "We are also scaling our partnership with All-Star MVP Anthony Edwards, who is now becoming a Sprite global partner."

Sprite’s new playbook offers a model for how large brands can operate with culture as long-term infrastructure rather than short-term output. Instead of treating partnerships as isolated moments, the brand applies a consistent filter to every decision: ensuring alignment with its core values and point of view, while prioritizing collaborations that create original, meaningful experiences. This framework allows Sprite to scale its platform without losing coherence or authenticity. "We love to co create with our partners," Vlad concludes. "We love to bring something fresh and original that hasn't been done before. That's really important to us."