Coca-Cola unveils AI overhaul of ‘Holidays Are Coming’

‘Holidays Are Coming’ is perhaps one of the most famous festive ads, having been running since 1995, but now The Coca-Cola Company has created a new AI-generated version of the ad, which will run on TV instead of the original.

The 16-second version will be shown on screens from today. This is the first time Coca-Cola has produced an ad fully generated by AI.

The advert is very similar to the 1995 original, with the same famous soundtrack, trucks and shots of wintery roads. But in this version, consumers are drinking Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, and the cast is more diverse than the original.

Coca-Cola set out to bring the almost 30-year-old ad this year to “today’s times”, European CMO Javier Meza told Marketing Week earlier this month.

“We didn’t start by saying: ‘OK, we need to do this with AI,’” he stated. “The brief was, we want to bring Holidays Are Coming into the present and then we explored AI as a solution to that.”

‘Dual velocity’ approach: How Coca-Cola marketers are adopting generative AI

AI presented an “efficient” way to do this, saving on both time and money, he noted.

The brand says it is extremely proud of the original creative and the role it has played in many consumers’ lives over the first season.

“Having such a piece of communication that becomes part of people’s life is a privilege. Not all brands have that privilege and it’s something that we take very seriously,” Meza said.

The brand has pre-tested its new AI-generated ad with consumers, who “loved” the version, he stated, which gave the company the confidence to proceed with the creative.

In addition to this updated version of Holidays Are Coming, the brand will re-run its festive ad from 2023, ‘The World Needs More Santas’.

Last year, The World Needs More Santas ad scored an “exceptional” 5.3 stars on System1’s ‘Test Your Ad’ platform, which acts as a predictor for the long-term effectiveness of adverts. System1’s own research suggests consistency and sticking with creative can yield increased advertising effectiveness.

While 2023’s Christmas ad gained an exceptional score on System1’s rankings, it was outperformed last year by the original Holidays Are Coming, which scored the maximum score of 5.9 stars and was ranked as the UK’s second most effective ad in 2023 overall.

Coca-Cola is taking the potential of generative AI extremely seriously in its business, Meza said, and is adopting a “dual velocity” approach to embedding it in the organisation.