Personalisation at scale is top of mind for most brands, but Coca-Cola was one of the first to execute the marketing strategy, and well before the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Coca‑Cola is best-in-class when it comes to creating marketing moments and creative campaigns that resonate. In 2011, Coke delivered a campaign known internally as “Project Connect” but to the rest of the world it was known as “Share a Coke”. It was a first-of-its-kind campaign where Coke swapped ou
Unlock indepth features,executive
interviews and quarterly magazines
Personalisation at scale is top of mind for most brands, but Coca-Cola was one of the first to execute the marketing strategy, and well before the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Coca‑Cola is best-in-class when it comes to creating marketing moments and creative campaigns that resonate.In 2011, Coke delivered a campaign known internally as “Project Connect” but to the rest of the world it was known as “Share a Coke”. It was a first-of-its-kind campaign where Coke swapped out its synonymous logo for the 150 most popular names in Australia.That summer, Coke sold more than 250 million of these ‘personalised’ bottles and cans in a country of less than 23 million people. Since then, Coca-Cola has rolled out the campaign in more than 70 countries. Speaking about the campaign at the Adobe Summit in Las Vegas this week, James Quincey, chairman and CEO of The Coca‑Cola Company, said, “Creative and scale don’t often hold hands”. But with the evolution of digital printers, Coca-Cola was able to customise its bottles for its “Share a Coke” rollout, a large-scale idea that wasn’t possible with traditional printing equipment. Now, the company is looking to create more memorable campaigns at scale with AI.Pushing the limits of personalisation While some brands are only just catching on to the capabilities of AI, Coca-Cola has been using a solid data-driven strategy to inform its business decisions for well over a decade.Quincey admitted that when it first came to AI, “We had no idea, but we jumped on the train early. We know we’re big, which makes us slow – so if you’re not in early, you’re behind.”The introduction of Generative AI (Gen AI) piqued Coca-Cola’s interest when trying to balance its local and global campaigns.While Gen AI campaigns are cheaper to produce and easier to scale, which is a huge productivity opportunity, the technology struggles with human resolution, according to Quincey.“We generally want to make ads with people in it,” he said.“It’s super interesting, because you can make a video with music and voice, and you can customise it endlessly, but it is not yet at the stage where it can make all our ads. Humans are incredibly effective at noticing AI that is not actually a human,” he added.However, he sees a huge opportunity to drive personalisation at scale when it comes to Coca-Cola’s ‘Coke with a meal’ advertisements.Personalisation at the global levelAccording to Quincy, personalisation is quickly becoming a priority for brands because customers want to be the protagonists of their own stories.“Customers want to be the centre of their own story… not just in the virtual world with social media, but in the real physical world. That’s an attractive value proposition,” Quincey said. “We can enter into debate around how social media is putting people at the center of their own universes and the pros and cons of that, but that is also partly why customers want to be protagonists in their own story,” he added.Coca-Cola achieves this feeling in its ‘Coke with a meal’ ads by pairing its beverages with meals specific to different cultures and communities. A Coke is pictured alongside a burger, biryani, curry, or tacos depending on the location of the ad.“I would prioritise elements that are relevant around the world. Sharing a Coke with a meal, for example, is a universal idea but the food can be different and local,” Quincey stated.Traditionally, it would have taken photographers, art directors, transport, sets and weeks to months to produce many different marketing materials.But now, it’s possible to produce localised ads with Gen AI that place the tradition of eating a meal with a Coke at the centre.The size and scale of Coca-Cola’s business can’t be understated; it has 33 million physical outlets globally that together sell on average 2.2 billion 8 oz beverages a day.“We refresh the world. We’re a beverage business, We’re not in any other businesses,” Quincey concluded.Further reading: Poppi’s influencer campaign is the end of influencer marketing as we know it
