Coca-Cola’s Latest Generative AI Initiative Focuses on Festive Customer Engagement
Generative AI is transforming the way brands interact with consumers. A recent example can be found in Coca-Cola’s innovative Christmas card campaign.
This is not the first generative AI initiative launched by the soft drink giant. Previously he produced the impressive Masterpiece advertising, which brought to life before our eyes some of the world’s most famous works of art. He also launched Coke Studio, allowing his audience to experience AI music creation.
The latest initiative, however, has a festive touch. Visitors to his Create real magic The site can use generative tools, powered by the Dall-E image generator and GPT-4 language model, to create its own Coca-Cola-themed cards to send to friends and family.
Importantly, Coca-Cola provides users with branded elements, including the iconic logo and glass bottle, along with full permission to use them as they see fit.
Party spirit
Recently, I spoke to Selman Careaga, Global Category President at Coca-Cola, who gave me an overview of the campaign’s goals.
He told me that in addition to continuing the company’s more than 130-year tradition of creating uplifting, optimistic, family-oriented messages, harnessing new technology has proven to be very effective in generating engagement.
Careaga said: “I think we’re adding a layer of innovation that’s exciting for people, and at the same time we’re letting people play with the brand – just let the brand go and see how people play with it. react. »
Although this promotion has only just launched and therefore there are no real metrics available showing its success, the company is optimistic that it will have a similar impact to other AI-related marketing initiatives.
“What I can tell you is that everything we’ve done with AI gets double the engagement of any other content we create,” he tells me.
It’s also reaching new audiences: 60% of those who participated in previous AI marketing initiatives had never interacted with the brand through other digital channels, such as social media.
A growing trend
One thing that is certain is that Coca-Cola’s enthusiasm for this transformative technology is indicative of broader trends sweeping marketing. As technology becomes more powerful and ubiquitous, I predict we will see even more companies adopting it for creative customer engagement initiatives.
The possibilities are virtually endless: it’s easy to imagine personalized marketing campaigns in which advertisements and promotions specifically target individual customers and their interests.
Given its accessibility and ease of use, its use is unlikely to be limited to global companies the size of Coca-Cola. It is likely to become an increasingly valuable and fertile audience engagement channel for businesses of all sizes looking for innovative ways to interact with their fans and customers.
Challenges and brand values
Despite the obvious opportunities, there are obviously also a number of challenges and ethical considerations. It’s possible that brands like Coca-Cola could suffer reputational damage if the technology is used in a way that creates negative associations, for example.
To this end, Coca-Cola has ensured that a number of “guardrails” are in place to prevent its tools from being misused in certain ways.
The tool won’t allow you to use certain words, for example, Careaga tells me.
“There are filters to make sure the cards represent the brand values because you can imagine if you don’t put guardrails in, you can end up in a lot of places you don’t want to. So there are tools behind the AI that you can filter to prevent any content that might not be appropriate for the brand.
The future of AI generative marketing?
Looking to the future, it’s clear to me that AI is set to play an important role in how marketers connect brands and audiences. The ability to create personalized content, along with its efficiency and scalability, makes it a powerful technology with many practical implications.
However, it is a path that must be tread with caution. AI companies themselves have repeatedly found themselves turn against him. Anyone who has used generative AI tools for a while knows that they are often far from perfect and that their potential hallucinate or misfires could easily lead to scrambled eggs in the face of insufficiently careful advertisers.
All this requires a careful approach. However, this is unlikely to change the fact that AI will continue to be used in marketing strategies in increasingly innovative and creative ways.
More interestingly, it offers brands and marketers the opportunity to build more interactive and engaging relationships. The role of “consumer” has always had connotations of passivity, but hopefully generative AI gives us the opportunity to take a more active role in the relationship.
This could have far-reaching implications for the dynamic between brands and consumers, and I for one can’t wait to see where this takes us.