evm_september-2023 - 29

BEST PRACTICES
When it's time to hit the digital
recording studio, fans are notified on their
phones to head into the green screen space
and make their moves with the help of
a 75-inch touch screen that guides the
experience. A large LED wall behind the
performers displays their bespoke, animated
AI graphics, along with digital fog
and pyrotechnic effects. After the video
is recorded and saved, it's uploaded to
the cloud and delivered by email within
seconds. Fans can also access the final
product by scanning a QR code on the
touch screen that links to a dedicated landing
page and the option to share a hi-res
version of the video on social.
" AI is really interesting, and we're seeing
a lot of really great ways to create more
immersive and customized experiences, "
says Ryan Keen, senior marketing manager
at Coca-Cola. " We've done programs
outside of festivals, for example, with our
sponsorship of the Drake [concert] tour,
where we're using AI to enable fans to
immerse themselves in a version of the
Sprite commercial that Drake did with us.
So it creates much more customized creative
that couldn't otherwise be done on a
manual basis at scale. "
" At scale " is a key phrase when it comes
to AI in events, as marketers now have
the ability to deliver hyper-personalized
activations while simultaneously crushing
throughput objectives. As Coke can attest
to, an experience that yields highly shareable
assets and only takes a few minutes
to create has major appeal among young
festivalgoers, many of whom could be
found lining up around the brand's booth
throughout the summer to get a taste of
stardom.
Fueling the entire Coke AI Studio
operation is a combination of creative
technologies, including AI video generation,
ChatGPT and real-time game
engines. Together, they're used to analyze
the same prompts, but interpret them in
different ways in real time to generate
unique songs, artwork and video elements
for each attendee. Incorporating the same
prompts but
yielding different outputs
that, ultimately, create the same overarching
experience, is a first in the world of AI,
according to Momentum Worldwide, with
which Coca-Cola partnered to develop
the Coke AI Studio, with assistance from
tech partner Tool.
Of course, experimenting with a relatively
new technology presents a number
of risks. When it comes to leveraging
artificial intelligence, particularly with
eventmarketer.com
art-centric activations like Coke's, marketers
should be wary of copyright infringement.
" The
biggest learning was how you
have to safeguard it, " says James Robinson,
chief creative officer at Momentum
Worldwide. " You have to ethically source
everything. So we were making sure that
everything was being generated from
[content] that was licensed, and we weren't
taking anything from an artist. That was
very important. But then there is the output
that has to be very carefully monitored
by both AI and human oversight to make
sure that you're not spitting out anything
that resembles an existing artist's name or
an existing piece of music. "
With AI slated to continue progressthe
speed of light,
ing at
Studio experience is likely to evolve with
it, according to Robinson, who says the
activation is being treated as a " long-tail "
project.
For Coke, the AI games have just
begun. Earlier this year, the brand unveiled
" Create Real Magic, " a first-of-its kind AI
platform developed by OpenAI and Bain
& Company that fused the capabilities of
GPT-4 and DALL-E, and invited digital
artists to produce original AI artwork with
brand assets from the Coca-Cola archives
for a chance to have it displayed on billboards
in Times Square and Piccadilly
Circus.
And in August, Coke partnered with
technologist Troy Ni and WPP Open X
to create artistic, AI-generated QR codes
tied to elements in " Be Who You Are (Real
Magic), " Coke Studio's debut music video.
The codes appeared in OOH displays at
movie theaters, stadiums and theme parks
around the U.S., and linked to the full
music video when scanned.
" I think, ultimately, it's [about] finding
the Coke AI
really authentic ways and experiences that
AI can enable, " Keen says. " Using AI for
the sake of AI creates more of a buzzword,
and for the consumer, that may not provide
value. So the example that we have
with Sprite and Drake, or the program
we're doing with Coke Studio and the AI
content creation that people can do with
their own album artwork and their own
music videos,
I
think,
is where people
will really be engaged and pleased by the
technology. "
FALL 2023 EVENT MARKETER
29
IMAGE CREDIT: COCA-COLA
http://www.eventmarketer.com
evm_september-2023

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