Coca-Cola Puts Consumer Experiences First to Inspire Acts of Kindness This Christmas

This Christmas, Coca-Cola blends human connection with technological innovation to inspire kindness across the globe. The second year of its “The World Needs More Santas” campaign, celebrating the spirit of Santa Claus within each of us, highlights the enchanting power of human connection and the ripple effect of kindness across 75+ markets worldwide.

This season, Coca-Cola unveils a new festive AI-driven digital experience, enabling people to engage in heartwarming conversations with Santa Claus or a snow globe avatar to create a personalized, shareable snow globe animation, based on a personal holiday memory. The digital snow globe serves as a virtual gift to share with someone as an act of kindness. Accessible through scanning the QR code on a Christmas bottle or can of Coca-Cola, the Create Real Magic™ Experience uses multi-modal AI including 3D avatar generation, genAI enabled real-time conversation and image generation to create a highly unique and personal experience for each user.

Beyond the screen, Coca-Cola is bolstering its commitment to fostering human connection around the world through a series of enchanting live experiences in Rovaniemi, Finland (21st November); New York City, USA (22nd November); Mexico (23rd November); Manila, Philippines (30th November) and Yokohama, Japan (7th December). The Coca-Cola Global Christmas Truck Tour promises to ignite the magic of the season with the Coca-Cola truck, a festive drone show and other, celebrating the spirit of togetherness that comes from sharing these unforgettable experiences.

This year, Coca-Cola also introduces a reinterpretation of the classic "Holidays Are Coming" film. Developed through a unique collaboration of human creativity and cutting-edge technology, the multiple new films use AI to illustrate how Coca-Cola Christmas trucks ignite the magic of the holiday season. Human storytellers created heartwarming narratives, while AI transformed their words into breathtaking visuals. This exciting venture into AI-generated storytelling demonstrates Coca-Cola's commitment to embracing innovation while staying true to its core values: spreading happiness and creating Real Magic.

In addition, last year’s lauded Coca-Cola TV ad "The World Needs More Santas" will return, soundtracked by British singer-songwriter Celeste with a cover of ‘Anyone Can Be Santa’. The touching film serves as a poignant reminder that even one act of Christmas kindness can spark the ‘inner Santa’ in each of us, demonstrating how the real magic of the season multiplies when embraced.

A new film has also been created to air in LATAM markets which tells the story of a kind security guard who, after losing his keys twice, experiences the true spirit of the holidays. Thanks to the Coca-Cola truck's bright lights and a neighbour's generosity, he finds himself sharing a joyous Christmas dinner with newfound friends, proving that the simplest act of kindness – even sharing a Coke – can create magical moments of connection.

Key elements of this year’s global Christmas campaign also include:

• On pack: This year’s on-pack promotion offers an unforgettable trip to Rovaniemi in Lapland, the hometown of Santa Claus, and other prizes and festive surprises.
  
• OOH: The 'Anyone Can Be Santa' messaging comes to life with striking new OOH ads. These feature images of Santa's 'shadow' in everyday poses that the public can easily recognize from their own routines. Beyond static and animated ads, Coca-Cola is also introducing an interactive version utilizing advanced camera technology. This allows Santa's shadow to emulate the real-time actions and movements of consumers on-site.

The campaign was developed by WPP Open X, led by VML, supported by Ogilvy PR and EssenceMediacom, alongside Accenture, JKR, Silverside AI, The Wildcard & Secret Level Entertainment Studio.