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Robots might not be able to consume sugary, carbonated soda—think what it would do to their mechanics!—but that has not stopped Coca-Cola from embracing artificial intelligence (AI) in its efforts to create, design, and market both the colas it sells and the packaging and marketing used to promote them. Through extended efforts in collaboration with OpenAI and Dall-E, Coca-Cola has expanded how it uses AI, as well as the opportunities available to consumers to engage with its brand and products.

For the past few years for example, consumers have been able to visit the Coke-maintained site Create Real Magic, where they can craft personalized holiday greetings. They enter their preferred text, sentiments, and recipients; the AI-supported site generates content, personalized just to their message. It also allows them access (limited, of course) to Coke’s iconic branded Santa or polar bears to decorate these holiday cards. 

Moving beyond the holiday season, Create Real Magic also encourages consumers and artists to use its AI capabilities to design and propose their own advertising campaigns. Successful submissions had the possibility of appearing on Coke billboards throughout London and New York. After announcing this option, the site attracted approximately 120,000 submissions—all content that fans and creative consumers provided at no additional cost to the company.

Following some complaints and concerns about the accessibility of Create Real Magic, Coke has worked with OpenAI to ensure the latest updates support multiple languages and cultural images, rather than being limited to English-speaking and Western cultures. Furthermore, it continues to work to simplify the interface, so that even people without substantial practice working with complex, sophisticated AI tools can enjoy the experience.

Another extension of the AI interaction also entails more than just pictures or advertising. For its limited edition Y3000 product, Coca-Cola provided its AI systems with inspirational images that its new product designers believed represented the likely future for cola. In their attempts to imagine what Coke would be like in the year 3000, they also integrated consumer data about shifting tastes and preferences. 

Leveraging all these data and input, the AI produced creative packaging, including a slim, silver can festooned with a seemingly shifting swirl of pastel colors, which aims to evoke the shifting future. Although the brand’s well-known script logo certainly appears on the cans, the font adds a futuristic feel as well; rather than clear outlines, it appears with dot-like connections. 

Then, beyond the cans and packages, the AI also contributed to designing the flavor of the limited-edition cola. Coca-Cola did not explain the flavor, but some people with early access note its sweet flavor profile, like a fruit punch or lollipop, though its color is the same as regular Coke. Furthermore, reflecting Coca-Cola’s well-honed knowledge about consumer preferences, Y3000 comes in both regular and zero-sugar versions.

Having tasted the AI-designed flavor in the AI-designed can, consumers also can engage further with the brand and the future by scanning a QR code. Doing so takes them to a dedicated site, where they can add their own ideas about what the world will look like in the year 3000. Many things will certainly be different, but mechanical robots probably still will not be able to enjoy a cold Coke.

Discussion Questions

  • Coca-Cola is using AI to produce both packaging and products. Could it also leverage it to address other elements of the marketing mix? How? 
  • What does the future “taste” like, in your mind? 

Sources: Trishla Ostwal, “Coca-Cola’s Holiday Campaign Gets a Generative AI-Powered Makeover,” AdWeek, November 17, 2023; Gabrielle Nicole Pharms, “Coke Launched a New Drink that’s Supposed to Taste Like the Future,” Food & Wine, September 15, 2023; Nicholas Vega, “Coca-Cola Used AI to Create its Newest Flavor: The Y3000 Soda ‘from the Future’,” CNBC, September 12, 2023; Coca-Cola, “Coca-Cola Creations Imagines Year 3000 with New Futuristic Flavor and AI-Powered Experience,” September 12, 2023, https://www.coca-colacompany.com/media-center/coca-cola-creations-imagines-year-3000-futuristic-flavor-ai-powered-experience