For decades, Coca-Cola has been synonymous with “real” – its brand philosophy rooted in the insight that magic lives in the unexpected moments that elevate the everyday into the extraordinary.

But in a world of artificial intelligence, filled with viral images of the Pope wearing a dripped-out white puffer jacket to “Deepfake Drake” and a song created by AI, it’s often difficult to know what “real” is anymore.

While some brands and people choose to fight AI technology, Coca-Cola is choosing to embrace it.

And it’s choosing to hand the world’s most famous brand over to the world.

The objective was simple: show how Coca-Cola is an early adopter of AI. And, engage the creative community in an unexpected way that shows the potential that generative AI and endless human imagination can have when brought together – in a way that only Coca-Cola can do.

To democratize AI and make it more approachable, Coca-Cola invited everyone to “Create Real Magic” to celebrate the power of creativity.

And they did it by handing over some of its most iconic assets that have lived in culture for decades for artists all over the world to re-imagine using a first-of-its-kind AI platform.

Leveraging hundreds of images as their canvas – such as the distinctive Coca-Cola bottle, polar bears and Santa Claus – Coca-Cola invited artists to co-create original artwork to show the possibilities of using generative AI to create art.

The incentives? To give creators the chance to showcase their best work on two of the most visible locations in the world: Coca-Cola’s iconic billboard in Times Square and Piccadilly Circus. And, to be part of the first Real Magic Creative Academy, a gathering of global creators and Coca-Cola’s marketers to expand the possibilities of

From NFTs to the metaverse, Coca-Cola hasn’t been shy about moving at the speed of culture to leverage technology and innovation to engage new and younger audiences.

To engage younger consumers – especially creatives and digital artists – Coca-Cola’s strategy was to leverage the power of generative AI to inspire creativity and democratize the use of its iconic brand assets.

Through the “Create Real Magic” initiative, it was able to harness the limitless power of technology and creativity to inspire and engage digital artists from around the world.

By creating a first-of-its-kind platform that made generative AI approachable, it allowed fans to experiment with new ideas and create original artwork using some of the most iconic images seen throughout the history of culture.

The bold and innovative strategy also demonstrated Coca-Cola’s commitment to moving quickly, testing, and scaling ideas using AI technology.

In late March, the almost two-week “Create Real Magic” campaign launched across 17 countries, including the United States, Australia and select countries in Europe.

Less than six weeks earlier, it was just an idea.

Born from a recent partnership with the OpenAI Alliance, Coca-Cola moved at the speed of culture to develop a first-of-its-kind innovation platform for artists to create in ways never imagined.

Creators could select iconic imagery on the web-based platform and provide imaginative direction – such as robots toasting with Coca-Cola bottles, coupled with a poem about refreshing soda on a summer day. The technology gave artists the opportunity to create artwork harnessing the combined capabilities of DALL-E and GPT for the first time.

After tweaking the images and text with onsite editing tools, creators could opt to share their work to have it featured on Coca-Cola’s billboards and be part of the Real Magic Creative Academy.

From the United States to Australia, artists from across the world created more than 120,000 unique images created with iconic Coca-Cola imagery.

All with zero paid media to drive awareness of the campaign.

Over the course of the campaign, engagement increased with creators spending an average of over 7 minutes using the platform, generating higher-quality images, and adding more than 30,000 images in the final days of the campaign.

The experience also helped Coca-Cola reach a consumer segment that it historically has been challenged to tap into – younger creatives.

With no paid media buy, organic social reach resulted in 300M+ potential impressions with more than 5,000 posts.

The campaign received positive coverage from media, including 46 placements across 22 countries and an estimated 316M+ impressions.

Sentiment was overwhelmingly positive at 90%, with consumers excited by the opportunity to participate in the campaign and impressed by Coca-Cola’s approach to innovation.