Pratik Thakar is revamping Coca-Cola Co.’s brand marketing with generative AI

Pratik Thakar has propelled Coca-Cola Co. to the forefront of generative AI, giving the company new opportunities for engagement and creative expression while aligning the Coke brand with art and culture and driving unprecedented marketing efficiencies. Thakar, VP and global head of generative AI, has taken a collaborative approach to AI, partnering with tech firms such as OpenAI, Stability AI and Nvidia, and then presenting their tools to digital artists for creative expression. The “Create Real Magic” global campaign last year invited fans to use GPT-4 and Dall-E to craft original artwork featuring iconic Coca-Cola assets. Select participants later partook in the “Real Magic Creative Academy,” spending three days creating at Coke’s Atlanta headquarters. The program paid off with more than 300 pieces of artwork featured on digital billboards, generating 300 million social impressions in 11 days, Coke said. Consumers who participated spent more than seven minutes with the Coke assets while yielding valuable first-party data. A stunning film called “Masterpiece,” made in collaboration with the Andy Warhol Foundation, demonstrated that generative AI could belong in an art museum. Blending animation with Stability AI’s stable diffusion platform, “Masterpiece” showed a Coke bottle being passed between famous works of art. Coke later launched Masterpiece on the Coinbase platform. See Ad Age’s Tech Power List honoring marketing leaders What is the biggest technological challenge facing your sector of advertising and technology, and why? More than a challenge, I see a huge opportunity in advertising coming from unprecedented innovation in the technology sector, including things like AI-era search engine capability, AI-powered hardware and the continued rise of more fluid social community platforms. The Coca-Cola Co. is committed to being at the forefront of AI experimentation. We are embracing the need to take risks, experiment with AI across our system and build on what we learn to drive scale and convert the opportunity into value for the company. What’s your favorite blog, TikTok account, podcast or any must-follows in your media diet? The podcasts What Now? with Trevor Noah and Plain English with Derek Thompson, and World Science Festival videos with Brian Greene on YouTube. Who is your technological hero, alive or from the past, who inspired you the most? Jensen Huang, co-founder, president and CEO of Nvidia. He is changing the game of accelerated computing. See Ad Age’s Tech Power List honoring marketing leaders

Pratik Thakar is revamping Coca-Cola Co.’s brand marketing with generative AI

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