Coca Cola's Masterpiece: How Coca-Cola Brought Masterpieces to Life with AI

A masterpiece of creativity and technology

Coca-Cola's Masterpiece campaign is a global brand experience under the “Real Magic” platform that brings classic works of art to life to celebrate Coca-Cola's magic. The creative heart of the campaign is a short film (approximately 2 minutes) set in a museum, in which an exhausted art student discovers new inspiration thanks to an adventurous bottle of Coca-Cola.

The iconic bottle literally travels from painting to painting — starting with Andy Warhol's famous 1962 Coca-Cola pop art work — moving through a diverse gallery of masterpieces. Along the way, the bottle ends up in famous paintings such as Edvard Munch's “The Scream,” J.M.W. Turner's “The Shipwreck,” and Van Gogh's “Bedroom in Arles,” as well as more modern works by emerging artists.

In one of the most iconic scenes, the screaming figure from Munch's “The Scream” hands a Coca-Cola bottle — a perfect example of how classical art literally comes to life. Eventually, the bottle reaches Johannes Vermeer's “Girl with a Pearl Earring”, whose portrait opens the bottle and thus gives the student a refreshing, inspiring break.

What makes this film so special is that the bottle not only appears' in 'the artworks, but adapts to the style of each work, constantly transforming while remaining recognisable as Coca-Cola. The result is a visually stunning journey that connects centuries of art history to the timeless brand.

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Watch the commercial here:

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Amazing results

The 'Masterpiece' campaign has garnered huge attention worldwide and is widely regarded as a creative and marketing success:

• Reach & views: After its online launch in March 2023, the film was distributed via abridged versions on TV, YouTube, Snapchat, Meta (Facebook/Instagram) and Twitch in various markets. Within a month, the YouTube video garnered more than 720,000 views and 11,000 likes on the Coca-Cola channel — about twice as many as a previous global campaign. The official YouTube upload now stands at over 3.7 million views.
• Engagement & earned media: The campaign generated significant buzz in both marketing media and social channels. Trade media called it “a wonderful fusion of art and AI” and wondered “have we finally found a good use of AI?” — a clear sign of positive reception.
• Digital collectibles: As an extension of the campaign, Coca-Cola launched a set of 8 Masterpiece digital artworks (NFTs), selling more than 80,000 copies in 72 hours, generating more than $543,000 in sales — a remarkable additional revenue and PR value.
• Awards & recognition: At the prestigious D&AD Awards 2023, “Masterpiece” won multiple Pencils, including a Yellow Pencil (gold) for Visual Effects and two Graphite Pencils (silver) for Production Design and Compositing. These awards underline the technical and creative excellence of the campaign.

The campaign is intended to be a long-term brand enhancer: Coca-Cola thus consolidates its cultural relevance and appeals to a new generation. As one Coca-Cola marketing director noted, it is hoped that the campaign “inspires people to take a break, refresh and lift their spirits with an ice-cold Coca-Cola” — perfectly suited to the intended uplift effect.

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The technical revolution behind the masterpiece

What sets Masterpiece apart is the unprecedented integration of generative AI and traditional production methods. Let's take a look under the hood of this complex production:

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Generative AI deployment

The campaign made extensive use of generative AI techniques to create stunning visual effects. In particular, Stable Diffusion (an AI image generation model) was used to create the unique animation style in which the Coca-Cola bottle seamlessly transitions from one painting style to another.

The specialists at Electric Theatre Collective (a high-end VFX studio) combined live-action images (such as museum scenes) with digitally animated artworks, and used AI to smooth the transition between the different artworks. When transforming the bottle from Warhol's fierce pop art style to artist Aket's graffiti-like style, for example, AI image editing (comparable to advanced style transfer) was used.

These types of style conversions, which would traditionally be extremely labour-intensive, were significantly accelerated by AI support without sacrificing artistic quality or consistency.

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Hybrid production approach

The production team followed a carefully planned workflow:

1. Live-action footage: Academy Films and director Henry Scholfield filmed the museum scenes with real actors
2. AI-driven artwork generation: Stable Diffusion was used to capture art styles and transform the bottle between styles
3. Visual effects compositing: Electric Theatre Collective's team combined hand-created animation with AI-generated elements
4. Style transformations: The AI helped generate seamless transitions between the different art styles
5. 3D integration: For some scenes, 3D modeling was combined with AI style transfer

The film was supported by 3D digital out-of-home (OOH) elements — think 3D billboards where the bottle appears to move on the screen in real life. This multimedia approach provided a consistent experience across channels.

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Artistic collaborations

An important aspect of the project was the collaboration with real artists:

• Five emerging artists from Africa, India, the Middle East, and Latin America contributed work that was integrated into the film, including WonderBuhle (You Can't Curse Me), Aket (Divine Idyll), Fatma Ramadan (The Blow Dryer), Stefania Tejada (Natural Encounters), and Vikram Kushwah (Falling in Library)
• Coca-Cola worked closely with these creators to authentically represent their art and interviewed them for an online gallery
• Technical integration required close collaboration between these artists, the creative agency Blitzworks, and production teams to maintain a coherent artistic vision

This collaboration highlights how AI can enhance, rather than replace, human creativity — a key theme in the AI discussion.

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Watch the 'making of' video here:

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What makes this campaign so special?

Masterpiece stands out for several unique aspects:

1. Seamless fusion of art and technology: Instead of using AI as a gimmick, the campaign integrates art historical references with cutting-edge technology into a story that feels genuine.
2. Meta-creative layer: The campaign is about creativity and inspiration, while it itself is a demonstration of creative innovation — a layer of self-confidence that reinforces the message.
3. Cultural relevance: By embracing both classic masterpieces and contemporary art, Coca-Cola positions itself as a bridge builder between tradition and modernity.
4. Technical virtuosity: The smooth transformations and seamless integration of the Coca-Cola bottle into various art styles demonstrate a level of advanced AI implementation rarely seen in brand campaigns.
5. Narrative structure: Unlike many tech-driven campaigns, Masterpiece has an emotional story that resonates — the quest for inspiration is universally recognisable.

Together, these elements created a campaign that was not only impressive on a technical level, but also emotionally connected and placed the brand in a culturally relevant context.

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The AI supercharging dimensions

Masterpiece is a textbook example of multi-dimensional AI supercharging:

1. Creative acceleration: What would traditionally have taken months of manual animation became possible in a fraction of the time thanks to AI tools that accelerated the creative process.
2. Style multiplication: AI made it possible to seamlessly transform the Coca-Cola bottle through dozens of different art styles with consistent quality — something that would otherwise require enormous resources.
3. Visual Innovation: The campaign achieved visual effects that would be practically impossible without AI, unlocking new creative opportunities.
4. Strengthening cooperation: AI acted as a creative enhancer for the team of human artists, animators, and directors, expanding rather than replacing their vision.
5. Content multiplication: The central creative elements were easily adapted for various formats — from short social clips to digital OOH applications — making the campaign more scalable.

These dimensions illustrate how AI is not just a tool for efficiency, but a real game-changer in what's creatively possible for brands.

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Challenges and Solutions

Despite the impressive end result, the production of Masterpiece came with considerable challenges:

1. Style consistency: Maintaining the recognisable Coca-Cola bottle elements while transforming between radically different art styles was technically challenging. Solution: A hybrid approach was used that combined AI transformations with manual refinement by VFX artists to maintain brand integrity.
2. Narrative coherence: Connecting diverse artworks into a fluid story required careful planning. Solution: A strong narrative structure was developed in advance, with the art student as anchor for the story and carefully planned transitions between artworks.
3. Balancing art and commerce: Dealing respectfully with works of art while they were being used for commercial purposes was a sensitive issue. Solution: The campaign was positioned as a celebration of art, including the involvement of real contemporary artists and an educational element via the online gallery.
4. Technical complexity: Integrating multiple AI models with traditional VFX workflows was technically complex. Solution: Specialized teams from Electric Theatre Collective worked on a custom pipeline to integrate AI outputs into existing production processes.
5. Global relevance: The campaign had to resonate in various markets with different cultural points of reference. Solution: Choosing both world-renowned artworks and various contemporary artists from different regions ensured global relevance, complemented by a phased rollout that made local adaptations possible.

These challenges illustrate the complexity of groundbreaking AI implementations in brand activations.

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Impact and potential for your marketing team

The lessons from Coca-Cola's Masterpiece campaign are widely applicable to marketing teams:

1. Technology at the service of storytelling: The campaign's success came from the fact that technology supported the story, not the other way around — an important lesson for teams experimenting with AI.
2. Enhancing cultural relevance with AI: By using AI to connect your brand to cultural reference points (such as art, music, or literature), you can create deeper resonance.
3. Adopting hybrid production processes: Teams that combine traditional creative processes with AI reinforcement can achieve the best of both worlds.
4. Create multiple assets from one creative vision: With AI, core concepts can be efficiently developed in various formats and channels.
5. Balance innovation with brand recognition: The transformative bottle has always remained recognisable as Coca-Cola — an example of how to innovate without losing brand identity.

Even with smaller budgets, brands can apply Masterpiece's principles by adapting certain elements. For example, using AI to place product visualizations in different artistic contexts, or creating content that bridges styles and eras.

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Practical takeaways

Here are concrete lessons you can apply from this campaign:

1. Start with the story, not the technology: First, define your creative vision and emotional message, and then determine which AI tools can help achieve that vision.
2. Experiment with style transfer: Even with accessible AI tools, you can place your brand assets in different visual styles — a strong starting point for experimentation.
3. Embrace hybrid work processes: Combine AI generation with human sophistication to achieve the best of both worlds.
4. Think about cultural context: Look for meaningful cultural reference points that your brand can authentically connect to through AI innovation.
5. Explore multimedia extensions: Develop a core idea that can be adapted to various formats — from video to social media to OOH.
6. Document the process: Consider sharing the “how it was made” story as part of your campaign — the creative process with AI can be as interesting as the end result.
7. Invest in partnerships: Collaborate with technical experts and creative partners who have experience integrating AI into production processes.

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Ready to transform your brand?

Coca-Cola's Masterpiece campaign demonstrates how AI supercharging can help a brand push boundaries in visual storytelling and creative expression. By using AI as a creative enhancer rather than a substitute for human creativity, Coca-Cola created an experience that was both innovative and emotionally resonant.

The key to success lay in the seamless integration of technology into a meaningful story that aligned with the brand's core values. This underscores a fundamental truth about AI supercharging: the most powerful applications reinforce what already makes your brand unique, instead of replacing it with technological gimmicks.

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This article is part of our “AI Supercharged Campaigns” series, highlighting the most innovative and inspiring AI marketing cases that can inspire your team.