Coca-Cola and AI Pushing the Limits

 

I saw the date on my phone as November 1st and I knew, its time to take the Christmas tree out. With Halloween behind us, it is officially the holidays! From Hobby Lobby to Starbucks cups and Dutch Bros straws and their holiday drinks, it is finally time for Christmas. Whether you're on the holiday train or not, this force of starting to prep for the Christmas season is everywhere around us.

One of those companies who are on the holiday train was Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company is already making headlines with their recent "refreshed and optimized" ad of "Holidays are coming,". They took a vintage iconic Santa and AI and mashed them together. Now some are bothered by the use of AI, but it was brave in my opinion. In just thirty seconds, they made a connection to the AI world we live in now to a connection to the past, their history. Its like a walk down memory lane, and i'm all for it. As a collector of vintage Coca-Cola ornaments, I was excited to see the vintage Santa being used in their ad. The creator of this new and most recent ad is just a straight up genius. It is a good way to bring back the childhood memories and moments that surrounded Coca-Cola, to the warmth of the holiday season. 

Coca-Cola is an iconic beverage that has been around for 138 years now. The syrup was made in 1886 by a pharmacist named Dr. John Pemberton. The first sale was on May 8th, 1886 in Atlanta Georgia in his pharmacy for only five cents. Here is where I was intrigued, the first marketing was in the next year that followed. In 1887, they made free drink coupons in order to spread and promote their new beverage. Now we are using AI and even though it is bringing uncertainty to the world, it worked in Coca-Cola's favor. Here is what ElDessouky had to say about AI. 

“We’re going to keep going at it, to be honest with you, because it’s giving us the measurements, the metrics and the business results, and, at the same time, we’re learning how to do things differently,” ElDessouky said of AI. “If we do not push ourselves and stretch our comfort zones, people are going to just move without us, and we would love them to move with us.” 

AI is not the only marketing channel that the Coca-Cola company is using. They are also using social media like Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok. They're strategy is to make an emotional connection with their audience. Their ads always display or show togetherness, happiness and comfort. Their iconic logo is bold, consistent and cultural. It hasn't changed and everywhere we see it, we know what it is and what it represents.

 If there is something that I learned with this project, it is that you can create warmth through marketing. Warmth does not just come through with moms warm cookies or receiving a hug from your child. It is also done through marketing. You have to find the right audience, the right strategies and the right plan. If you take the time to really plan out who you are trying to target, the opportunities are limitless. 

Sources:

https://www.marketingdive.com/news/why-coca-cola-keeps-pushing-limits-generative-ai-despite-backlash/804739/

https://www.coca-cola.com/in/en/about-us/history#:~:text=in%20the%20USA-,On%20May%208%2C%201886%2C%20Dr.,Jacobs'%20Pharmacy%20in%20downtown%20Atlanta.