Naughty or nice? Coca-Cola doubles down on AI for the holidays
Coca-Cola launched "Refresh Your Holidays" on Nov. 3, putting AI-driven creative at the center of its seasonal push. The campaign brings back a refreshed, optimized version of last year's "Holidays Are Coming" spot - created with generative AI - alongside a new memory-led film, "A Holiday Memory."
For marketers, this is a clear signal: AI isn't a gimmick. It's being used to scale iconic assets, test faster, and personalize without losing the brand's core. Coca-Cola is betting that a smart blend of AI craft and human storytelling can drive both emotion and performance.
What's new in the work
The updated 60-second "Holidays Are Coming" opens with Santa cracking a Coke and tracks light-lined delivery trucks as they capture attention from animals like polar bears and penguins. Despite last year's controversy, leadership says the work hit internal Christmas benchmarks and competitive norms.
The second spot, "A Holiday Memory," is a 30-second film rolling out across North America, Latin America, and Asia South-Pacific. It follows a woman decorating for the season who finds a snow globe and recalls a lively gathering where "Feliz Navidad" was performed.
Channels, markets, and partners
Media spans TV, online video, digital, out-of-home, social, in-store, and on-pack. The brand's Christmas trucks will tour in November and December, creating physical touchpoints that feed social content and retail lift.
WPP Open X led by VML developed the campaign with support from EssenceMediacom, Ogilvy, and Burson. Silverside AI and Secret Level contributed to the refreshed "Holidays Are Coming."
Why it matters for marketers
Coca-Cola's holiday work carries cultural weight - its marketing helped shape modern perceptions of Santa over time. Using AI here raises the bar for brand safety, authenticity, and quality control. The upside: faster iteration, regional flexibility, and a deeper test-and-learn loop at scale.
The company also reported Q3 net revenue growth of 5% to $12.5 billion, with leadership pointing to digital engagement, personalization, and cultural relevance as core to its marketing transformation. It's a blueprint for pairing brand-building with performance discipline.
Practical takeaways you can apply now
- Define quality gates for AI creative: benchmark recall, sentiment, and brand lift against historical holiday norms before wide release.
- Use AI to iterate, not replace: lock the brand codes (iconography, color, audio cues) and let AI optimize variations for sequencing, markets, and formats.
- Anchor in memory cues: seasonal triggers (music, symbols, rituals) boost fluency. "Feliz Navidad" and snow globes are easy memory accelerants.
- Pair digital with real-world experiences: truck tours, pop-ups, and retail displays give social content a physical backbone and drive measurable conversion.
- Localize with intent: one master story, modular edits for language, casting, and context. Keep consistent brand assets across markets.
- Instrument for learning: set up MMM/MTA + brand tracking to isolate AI-driven optimizations from media weight and seasonal effects.
- Strengthen governance: document data sources, prompt libraries, and approval workflows with agency and AI partners.
What to watch
- Consumer response to AI-crafted nostalgia: does sentiment hold as the novelty fades?
- Creative fatigue: are frequent AI optimizations improving outcomes or just increasing volume?
- Retail impact: lift in seasonal SKUs tied to on-pack and in-store elements.
- Regional performance: does the 30-second memory spot travel effectively across languages and cultural contexts?
Action steps for your holiday plan
- Audit your holiday brand codes and codify them for AI guardrails.
- Spin 3-5 AI-driven creative variants and pre-test for emotion, clarity, and brand attribution.
- Build a content ladder: hero film, cutdowns, UGC prompts, retail tie-ins, and a small experiential moment that fuels social.
- Set weekly readouts across media, creative, and retail teams to make fast, evidence-based tweaks.
Want more structure for AI-in-marketing workflows and guardrails? Explore the company's newsroom for brand strategy context: Coca-Cola Company News.
If you're upskilling your team on AI for marketing, this focused program can help: AI Certification for Marketing Specialists.
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