Coca-Cola introduces new limited edition flavor powered by AI
Coca-Cola’s latest “creations” limited edition flavor is meant to taste like “what the future could look like.” The brand, which has been leaning heavily into AI for marketing purposes (see here, here and here), is now using the technology to influence product and packaging decisions. We’d love to see more detail on exactly what process and tools the beverage giant is using, but for now we’ll have to be happy with the somewhat vague details they’ve officially released…
Update 9/20/23: AdWeek has published a story that includes a few more details on the process, as well as the brand’s overall philosophy on genAI.
From CNN:
For about a year and a half, Coca-Cola has experimented with limited-edition beverages that have mystery tastes — most of them with vague, futuristic concepts and undisclosed flavors.
The latest one, Coca-Cola Y3000, fits the bill. The one distinction: It’s supposed to taste like the future. Fittingly, the soft-drink giant used artificial intelligence to help determine the flavor and packaging.
It’s important for Coca-Cola to keep customers — particularly younger ones — excited about Coke, its more-than-a-century-old signature product. In recent years, health-conscious consumers have shied away from sugary beverages, making it trickier for soda sellers to market their legacy brands. Coca-Cola has used its Creations platform, responsible for limited-edition flavors like Y3000, to try to make the brand resonate with younger consumers.
Like all Creations drinks, Coca-Cola Y3000 is designed to taste mostly like Coke, with a bit of something else. To come up with that extra note of flavor, and the packaging design, Coca-Cola turned to AI.
The company relied on regular old human insights by finding out what flavors people associate with the future. Then it used AI to help figure out flavor pairings and profiles, a spokesperson said. For the product’s packaging — which appears to allude to a Y2K aesthetic with funky bubbles, pink and blue coloring and a pixelated logo — Coca-Cola used AI-generated images to create a mood board for inspiration. The aluminum can even gives credit where it’s due, prominently noting it’s “Co-Created with AI.”
Additional coverage at AdAge.
And still more info via WPP’s Chief Marketing & Growth Officer on LinkedIn:
