Blueplus, ‘The Cute Phenomenon’

Created by CJ WORX Thailand, this engaging tale urges everyone to claim all their reward points, or risk making a fuzzy blue creature very sad.

Jack Link’s, ‘For the Real Hero’

Brand New Agency goes full anime in this vibrant effort. Backed by a catchy soundtrack, our hero Jack is all about saving the world with thicker, meatier jerky!

AAMI, ‘Lucky You’re With AAMI’

This fun spot created by Ogilvy Melbourne shows that when young athletes are inspired by world events, they train hard. When their aspirations exceed their skills, however, it’s a good thing their parents have great insurance.

Coca-Cola, ‘Family Gathering’

Wunderman Thompson and Hogarth Worldwide showcase real Coca-Cola stories during the annual Kabagabo family reunion.

Domino’s, ‘Naked Pizza’

In a nod to Icelandic midsummer traditions, PiparTBWA and TBWANordic present the Naked Pizza. What else would you eat after rolling nude in the dew-soaked grass?

Santa Casa Hospital, ‘Dream’

Filadelfia in Brazil created this heartfelt salute for the hospital’s 125th anniversary. Be sure to watch until the end to find out what happened to these real people.

“Engaging with a digitally absorbed Gen z audience on the streets is increasingly challenging. The onus is on brands to continually innovate and create an unmissable presence,” says Islam ElDessouky, global vice president of creative strategy and content. “Our latest executions were focused on ‘value exchange.’ OOH is an accessible traditional medium and it’s for everyone, just like Coca-Cola but what are people really experiencing from our brand when it’s on the streets?”

Sore necks, perhaps, if you keep following the trajectory of that pixelated ball for too long.

WPP Open X, Grey N.Y. and Dubai Studios produced the project, which ties into brand iconography (bottles as paddles) and nostalgia (vintage gaming styles) on an impressive scale.

And while we’re on the subject of recycling culture, a separate Coke effort—developed through Open X, led by Ogilvy N.Y.—crushes the brand’s iconic cans and logo to illustrate its commitment to sustainability.

“The logo is so recognizable that people instantly know what they’re looking at even when they see a version of it that looks like it has been ‘crushed’ as part of the recycling process,” says Guillermo Vega, global creative network lead at Ogilvy.

The push includes billboards in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico plus videos and social content, touting Coke’s pledge to make its packaging 100 percent recyclable by next year.

Finally, Coke launched “Magic Catch” in Europe through Open X, led by Ogilvy Paris and Subvrsive.

Who wouldn’t want to use their phones to “catch” a digitized Coke bottle as it zips across billboards? (Insert your snarky comment here.)

“The idea is based on a universal cultural behavior and breaks the boundaries that exist between physical, digital and social touch points,” say Ogilvy creative directors Thibault Michal and Yann-Gaël Cobigo. “As it becomes increasingly difficult to grab the attention of Gen Z, it’s great to have found a way to stand out in the visual jungles that our cities have become. With the ‘Magic Catch’ we want to make people stop, look up and have fun for a few minutes with our interactive billboard.”

Coca-Cola, ‘Epic Night Out’

Created by Ogilvy Singapore for Coca-Cola, this one features superstar rapper F.HERO alongside celebrity gourmet Chef Pom. Plus, so so many spoons!

Roskilde Festival, ‘Send Them This Film’

Denmark’s &Co./NoA agency wants us to understand that attending the Roskilde Festival is, in fact, a form of charity work.

Samsung, ‘Grandma-fluencer’

It’s out with the old and in with the … older? In a delightful twist on influencer marketing, BBDO Bangkok teams up with Samsung to introduce the “Grandma-fluencer.” The breezy work touts WIndFree air conditioners for Thailand’s Gen Z and Millennials.

Kellogg, ‘Mommy Heist’

Kellogg Noodles and Allthingsdibo inspire children to surprise their mothers by preparing an easy Iftar meal.

Icelandair, ‘The Polite Tourist Bouncer Returns’

It’s a layover, not a vacation! Kubbco and Icelandair check in on the multi-day layover of a business traveler and the ways she spends her time.

Foodco, ‘Take a Breakation’

Australia’s Foodco and Connecting Plots remind us that no matter how rushed you are, everyone deserves a “breakation” during their day. And we do mean everyone…

1. Capital One, ‘Holiday Night Fever’

Travolta boogies like it’s 1977 as a disco-dancin’ Kringle.

2. Coca-Cola, ‘The World Needs More Santas’

There’s a city full of Saint Nicks in this surprising scenario.

3. John Lewis, ‘The Perfect Tree’

An unexpected touch of horror-comedy from the U.K. retailer.

And here are the rest of our contenders in alphabetical order…

Amazon, ‘Joy Ride’

The Beatles’ timeless “In My Life” propels a sweet sledding story.

Apple, ‘Fuzzy Feelings’

A heartwarming tale with stop-motion animation and a George Harrison track.

Burger King, ‘Driving Home for Christmas’

Tunefully guiding motorists to 21 drive-thru locations in the U.K.

Etsy, ‘Your Mission’

Who needs carols? Let’s sing the Mission: Impossible earworm instead.

Kroger, ‘Cuisine Exchange’

The brand’s Krojis return—and every picture tells a story.

Tesco, ‘Become More Christmas’

Dad turns into a tree—but that’s just the start

Tui, ‘Happy Holidays’

Santa’s helpers get up to mischief as they take some time off post-Xmas.

Walmart, ‘Add to Heart’

With a meet-cute, a love triangle and Meg Stalter.

So. Many. Santas.

The city’s crackling with Kringles in Coca-Cola’s holiday spot.

Crafted by Open X and Stink Films’ directing collective Traktor, “The World Needs More Santas” shows St. Nicks hustling down busy streets, riding the subway, pumping iron, skateboarding and prepping gifts for Dec. 25.

The twist at the end? We’re all Santas, inspired by the season to be our best jolly old selves.

That’s a simple, relatable message in keeping with the ethos of a brand which has long focused on Christmas to generate memorable campaigns. Clocking in around 2-minutes, the work certainly tallies, offering unabashedly memorable visuals unencumbered by narrative trickery.

Celeste’s “I Could Be Santa Claus” works wonders on the soundtrack. It’s playfully on point but not overly familiar. (Though the imagery puts the Twilight Zone’s “do do do do” theme in our heads).

“‘The World Needs More Santas’ hinges on the idea that through acts of kindness, anyone can embrace their inner Santa. Kindness is one of the brand’s core values,” Islam ElDessouky, global creative, strategy and content lead for Coke, tells Marketing Week.

Notably, the work weds snappy visuals—a hallmark of the brand’s recent tech-infused outings—with traditional yuletide themes. That fizzy festive combo delivers the goods with style and heart.

The hero film drops today, with other seasonal elements to follow. These include more videos, a “Find Your Inner Santa” quiz across DOOH and packaging, as well as Christmas cards powered by AI (what else?).

Per Coke, the brand collected flavor preferences and trends from consumers, and used these learnings to develop taste profiles with AI. Both people and algorithms worked on the packaging.

Doubling down on the futurism concept—or bubbling up, in Coke’s case—the brand and Ambush fashions will launch an apparel and accessories collection, too.

Forpeople, Virtue, WPP Open X/Ogilvy and EssenceMediacom worked on elements of the campaign.

The push resembles Coke’s recent QR code music foray with Jon Batiste, which also leveraged AI elements.

Such stuff’s helped the brand generate buzz all year long. Of course, at some point the generative craze will go flat. But there’s no sign of that yet. And so far, Coke’s kept its AI efforts consistently refreshing thanks to variety, superb craft and canny ties to pop culture.

The fully-functional codes appear in OOH displays at movie theaters, stadiums and theme parks nationwide. Check them out below, repping, in order of appearance, song performers Batiste, NewJeans, J.I.D., Camilo and Cat Burns.

Those images rock an abstract, sci-fi feel; they’re colorful, detailed and bristle with energy. This style fits the notion of dressing-up QR codes, representation totems of our plugged-in age.

That said, just having one of the things, unadorned, bob around a TV screen won the Super Clio in 2022 for best commercial in the Super Bowl. Still, Coke’s tricked-out codes look perfect for a dorm-room wall.

The soft-drink titan’s been all about art in its advertising lately. And it ranks among the brands most active in leveraging AI for campaigns. This effort amplifies those themes, tying them closer to pop culture through music.

In an earnest effort to prove it won’t be made obsolete by our A.I. overlords, Coca-Cola, in an initiative developed with Ogilvy, has allied itself with OpenAI, best known for giving us ChatGPT, DALL·E and Codex. The result is called “Create Real Magic.”

The work plays like the effort of an overzealous manager doing their Oxford best to outdo the bloated agency of their office nemesis. If this feels weirdly familiar, it should: This A.I. collab has flung us back into the user-generated content days of advertising!

The platform is equipped with iconic brand assets, like the contour bottle, the Spencerian script logo, Santa Claus and Polar bears. You then write prompts to produce various creations that incorporate such details.

Through March 31, for 17 participating countries, people can submit their arty results, which could then appear on Coke billboards in Times Square and Piccadilly Circus. Thirty participants will also be tapped to attend the Real Magic Creative Academy, a three-day workshop at the brand’s Atlanta headquarters.

Just what we wanted. Instead of A.I. stealing creative jobs, we return to an era when brands thought everyone and their uncle could do said jobs instead!

(As a fun aside, the website can’t be accessed in France. It yields a 404 error that reads, “Magic is not available for the country you are logging in!”)

“Our company is embracing the power of digital in every aspect of our business, and ‘Create Real Magic’ is a way to invite even more people to join us,” says Manolo Arroyo, global chief marketing officer for Coca-Cola. “We invite fans to experiment and create their own, totally unique AI-based artwork using this innovative new platform.”

Beyond the UGC bit, four artists—Emma Sofija, Chris Branch, Paul Parsons (Europe, and Ean Hwa Huang—created custom art using iconic Coca-Cola imagery and OpenAI technology. This is a good example of how creative professionals will actually interact with A.I. And it’s also not new: In the ’90s, David Bowie co-created a “Verbasizer” app, which analyzed sentences, cut words and randomly distributed various elements to help him produce unique compositions.

“Create Real Magic” is an iteration of Coca-Cola’s overall “Real Magic” brand philosophy, and marks one of the first global campaigns attempting to use A.I. as a key marketing feature. (Jesus got there first, though.)

“This campaign is an opportunity to co-create with artists and fans of Coca-Cola,” says Arroyo. “It’s also just a start to accessing AI’s potential impact in marketing and engaging consumers in ways they haven’t imagined. We can’t wait to see what fans are inspired to create using some of our iconic assets.”

Because that went so well in the early social media days!

Click to enlarge these images, created through the new A.I. collab:

What if a Coca-Cola bottle, from one of Andy Warhol’s Kennedy-era pop-art classics, escaped its frame and bounced into other nearby masterpieces in some kind of fantastical museum?

The results might look a lot like the short film below. Developed with Blitzworks and director Henry Scholfield, the piece combines live action, animation and fanciful strokes to help evolve Coke’s global “Real Magic” platform.

After the bottle leaves the confines of “Coca-Cola (4),” scenes take place in Turner’s “The Shipwreck,” Munch’s “The Scream,” Van Gogh’s “Bedroom in Arles,” Hiroshige’s “Drum Bridge and Setting Sun” and Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring.” New works from young creators in Africa, India, the Middle East and Latin America also appear.

Ultimately, the bottle lands with an art student.

“Masterpiece’ is not a story in which Coke appears… Coke is the story,” says Pratik Thakar, global head of creative strategy and integrated content. “True to the spirit of the brand—and not unlike the way a supply chain collaborates to deliver Coca‑Cola to consumers at just the right time—a diverse collection of artwork spanning multiple genres, geographies and generations comes together to uplift a slumping teenager,” he says.

The dude in question starts chugging the stuff, so presumably he got bounced the gallery. Can’t risk getting Coke all over those priceless exhibits!

Any evocation of Warhol is dope, and this one especially resonates. Andy (literally) drew inspiration from mass media and consumer goods. Now, brands employ his ideas and imagery. It’s like a cosmic cycle that won’t quit, as delicious as any mixture of carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup and caffeine. May his 15 minutes never end!

“We are excited to connect with Coca‑Cola to showcase one of Andy Warhol’s most iconic works alongside some of the world’s most universally loved masterpieces,” said Michael Dayton Hermann, director of licensing, marketing and sales at The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. “These pieces, paired with works by emerging artists from around the globe, celebrate the inspirational power of visual art through the magical lens of Coca‑Cola.”

Back in 1985, director Steve Barron’s video for A-ha’s peppy synth-pop hit “Take On Me” ran on MTV about 20 times a day. Its distinctive fusion of colorful live action and monochrome rotoscope animation tells the tale of a flesh-and-blood woman drawn to a new-wave motorcycle-racing dude who lives in a comic-book world.

It’s one of the most iconic music videos of all time, with 1.5 billion views on YouTube alone, plus countless homages and imitations—including a Volkswagen commercial—to its credit.

Now, Halsey channels that Reagan-era vibe in a 40-second teaser for her latest single, “So Good.” Directed by Matthew Dillon Cohen and developed with VMLY&R, the film premiered last week exclusively on Coca-Cola’s Coke Studio digital platform.

Mirroring the look and feel of “Take On Me,” the narrative finds Halsey decorating a canvas that might serve as a portal to an alternate universe:

So, it’s a cute comment on art and life inextricably entwined. Viva creativity! (Fueled by an icy-cold Coke, of course.) The short features the last chorus from “So Good.” Here us Halsey’s full-length video for the track, sans callouts to soft drinks or ’80s pop bands:

Coca-Cola has a long history in the music space, dating back to its “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” jingle from the ’70s through its recent efforts with Tyler the Creator and Marshmello.

Relaunched in expanded form a few months back, Coke Studio seeks to build a “more deliberate and sustained presence,” providing a hub “for experiences and content to live and be enjoyed by fans at any time,” Coca-Cola brand director Brandan Strickland tells Muse.

Coke tapped Halsey because “her massive, diverse, primarily Gen Z fanbase—as well as her passion for inclusion and togetherness in music—align perfectly with the purpose of Coke Studio: uniting young people through a shared love of music,” Strickland says. “On top of that, she’s an authentic Coke fan and fully understands the feeling of ‘Real Magic’ the brand is striving for.”

The company launched that global positioning last year in a splashy film aimed at gamers that garnered mixed reviews, though a subsequent “Real Magic” holiday spot drew considerable praise.

In addition to the Halsey video drop, Coke Studio will present summer content from Khalid, The Kid LAROI, BIA and Ari Lennox, and offer concert tickets, artist meet-and-greets, autographed albums and more.

In addition, Coke will provide OOH support for Halsey’s “Move On,” and she’s hyping the collab across social.

CREDITS

Coca-Cola
Brandan Strickland – Brand Director, Coke Trademark
Ali Cascino – Director, Content and Shopper Programs
Morgan Bullock – Brand Manager, Coke Trademark
Michael Hughes – Sr. Manager, End to End Connections and Media
Aly Hite – Sr. Manager, Strategic Communications
Richard Toranzo – Director, Social Center
Chelsey Wilkins – Media and Influencer Lead
Jennifer Spillers Kramer – Sr. Manager, Creative Production

VMLY&R (Creative Lead)
Debbi Vandeven – Global Chief Creative Officer
John Godsey, Chief Creative Officer
Nick Allegri – Group Creative Director
Megan Steidl – Group Creative Director
Jessica Walden Morden – Creative Director
Jennifer Farquharson – Creative Director
Pedro Assis – Sr. Art Director
Breno Oliveira – Sr. Copywriter
Shaun Campbell – Group Executive Producer
Mary Anthony – Director, Strategy & Insights
Damian Dawson – Associate Connections Director, Social
Megan Mills – Group Director, Client Engagement
Andrea McDowell – Director, Client Engagement
Devin Rote – Supervisor, Client Engagement
Camille Lewis – Sr. Program Manager
Michelle Sanchez – Talent Director, North America
Theresa Notartomaso – Executive Music Producer

LFR (Production Company)
Matthew Dillon Cohen – Director                                                                                    
Luigi Rossi – Executive Producer               
Gianfranco Svagelj – Line Producer

Attaboy (Editorial)
Vikkal Parikh – Creative Director 
Rasha Clark -Head of Production
Meghana Murthy – Producer 
Cameron Gray – Executive Producer 
John Marinis – Editor 
Jeremy Baumann – Editor 
Dess Quiñones – Designer
Daniel Cordero – Animator
Adam VanDine – Animator/Compositor 
Alex Wood – Junior Animator 

Halsey Management
Sara Scooch – Music Brand Partnerships, United Talent Agency
Alisann Blood – Music Brand Partnerships, United Talent Agency
Anthony Li – Artist Management
Jason Aron – Artist Management