With 205 countriesout  of 206 to go, Coca-Cola’s team of three young “happiness ambassadors” kicked off their year-long global adventure, referred to as Expedition 206 by ringing in the new year with thousands of party goers in Madrid, Spain.

Madrid was the first stop on the team’s 275,000-mile voyage to 206 countries and territories where Coca-Cola is sold to seek out what makes people happy.

The team of three will be arriving Nigeria on the 12th of October for a 2-day visit.  While in Nigeria they will have the opportunity of interacting and sharing knowledge with Coca-Cola consumers and fans in Nigeria.

The three members of Expedition 206 – Tony Martin, 30, a Washington, D.C., native who teaches kindergarten in Munich; Kelly Ferris, 23, a university student from Brussels; and Antonio Santiago, 24, a university student from Mexico City – will document the entire trip on www.Expedition206.com and a variety of social networking sites, including Facebook, YouTube etc.
“Celebrating new year’s day was a perfect start to this journey as we are anticipating an amazing 2010 and look forward to sharing the experience with the world,” said Tony.

As the team travels the globe seeking stories of happiness, fans can follow the real-time updates with a new Expedition 206 widget that takes all of the team’s content and pulls it onto fans’ own Web sites, blogs and social network profile pages. In addition, the built-in chat function on www.

Expedition206.com ensures people can quickly and easily become a part of the Expedition 206 adventure – interacting with the team members and other fans. Using all of these sites and tools, fans will serve as “virtual travel agents” for the team, helping decide where they will go, what they will do and whom they will visit in each destination.