Coca-Cola summons an army of Santas in a new holiday campaign that delivers a message of generosity and goodwill that extends to interactive digital elements, including an online quiz and AI holiday postcards.

“The World Needs More Santas” from Coca-Cola Co.-dedicated agency WPP’s OpenX, will be adopted in more than 80 markets worldwide. A film shows a city full of Santas performing small acts of kindness, from retrieving a lost red sock at the laundry to spotting a bench-pressing Santa at the gym. The Santas are later revealed to actually be the “inner Santas” of everyday people. The music, “Anyone Could Be Santa,” is performed by Celeste.

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According to Islam ElDessouky, global head of creative strategy and content for Coca-Cola, the concept for the ad grew from the brand seeking an intersection between Coca-Cola’s stated values—optimism, happiness and making a difference—and the spirit of Christmas.

“In essence, we worked with OpenX in a very open brief [that asked] how can we take this sweet spot between Coke values and Christmas spirit and make a message that changes the hearts and the minds of people in the world,” ElDessouky said.

“We are leveraging the figure of Santa Claus and its symbolism as it brings kindness, gift-giving, goodwill and generosity to the world, which ties in very nicely with what Coke stood for,” he added.

Coca-Cola and Santa

Coca-Cola has a long association with Santa Claus as an advertising figure, first using Santa in advertising in the 1920s. In 1931, the brand commissioned illustrator Haddon Sundblom to create images of Santa for Coke ads that became synonymous with the brand.

Coke is keeping the Santa association contemporary through new ways of engaging consumers that are a part of the new campaign.

“We want to stay consistent, but we want to keep it fresh,” ElDessouky said. “That ‘what’ doesn’t really change, but the ‘how’ is where we try to inject freshness and inject new ways of consumer engagement and participation.”

The brand is asking consumers to participate through a “Find Your Inner Santa” quiz, available on the Coca-Cola mobile app and mobile browsers. The five-question quiz determines which “tribe” of Santa a person belongs to, ElDessouky said—for example, a joyful Santa, a generous Santa, or an empathetic Santa. Results are ready to post to social media.

Scannable codes on packages and digital out-of-home ads will also unlock the “Find Your Inner Santa” quiz. Pack scans also offer the chance to win prizes in some markets including a trip to Rovaniemi, Finland to meet Santa Claus in his official “hometown.”

The campaign will also see Coca-Cola continue its use of AI in advertising, through AI-enabled Christmas postcards, ElDessouky said.

Additional details of the AI deployment are to be announced.

“We have one single-minded objective: we’re trying to establish a relationship with consumers,” ElDessouky said. “For you to have a relationship, there has to be a value exchange, there has to be connections, there has to be engagement, they have to be with you in this journey. So the more we can engage, the more we offer experiences that encourage participation and encourage this exchange the more we keep this relationship, which leads to business success.”