Coke Wants Artists to Create Ad Images with Customized DALL-E Solution from OpenAI
Hyper-creation is upon us
Coca-Cola is asking artists to use a special implementation of OpenAI’s DALL-E to create ad images promoting the brand. The company said, “artists will be credited for their work,” which notably doesn’t include the word “paid.”
The incentive for artists is to have their work for the beverage giant displayed on digital billboards in New York’s Times Square and London’s Piccadilly Circus. In addition, 30 Grand Prize winners will be invited to Atlanta this summer for a three-day workshop with Coke’s global design team.
The Create Real Magic program emerged from the new collaboration between Bain & Company and OpenAI to help enterprises adopt generative AI technology. Coca-Cola said in the announcement:
‘Create Real Magic’ gives digital artists the unique opportunity to play in a custom-created sandbox, powered by GPT-4 and DALL-E, and democratizes both our brand iconography and highest-profile advertising assets.
One of a Kind
Coca-Cola claims that the program is the first to combine GPT-4 with DALL-E, which may be true given that the new Bing Create feature that leverages GPT-4 and DALL-E was announced the following day. However, the implementation is not just a reskinning of DALL-E. It includes access to Coke brand assets that become the base of the AI-generated images.
You can then resize and erase part of the base image to create empty space. Once you enter your prompt into the dialogue box, DALL-E will attempt to fill in the empty space while maintaining your base image. This looks like it is using DALL-E’s outpainting feature. The difference here is the base image is not a rectangle, and you can erase areas where you want the AI to fill in the image.
Hyper-Creation and Generative AI
One of Synthedia’s core theses is generative AI will usher in an era of hyper-creation. Accelerating production through hyper-automation gets most of the media attention. However, when you can generate more creative assets faster, it doesn’t mean you will use all of them. A key benefit of generative AI’s speed of production is that it enables authors and artists to generate more ideas. This includes ideas that emerge from generative AI models that would never have been considered. More creative ideas translate into more choices about what to take to production.
The Create Real Magic campaign is not the first crowdsourced marketing initiative by a major consumer brand. It is a clever way to leverage interest in text-to-image generators and gather a lot of choices to feature in the campaign while riding the wave of generative AI media coverage. Look at this post. We are writing about it.
In addition, Coke is likely to discover novel creative ideas it can leverage. The participants retain rights to the images they create with some restrictions based on the Coca-Cola assets. However, the creator also is required to grant unrestricted rights for Coca-Cola to use the creative output and ideas behind it. The compulsory terms of use include:
You agree and hereby grant Coca-Cola the unrestricted, perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully-paid right and license (and right to sublicense through multiple tiers) to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, publicly display, perform, translate, create derivative works from, distribute and otherwise disclose to third parties your Submission, in whole or in part, for any purpose and in any media now known or hereafter developed to the extent permitted by law (“Artwork License”)…
IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO GRANT COCA-COLA AN ARTWORK LICENSE, PLEASE DO NOT CREATE A SUBMISSION OR ENTER THE CONTEST.
Rethinking Processes, Goals, and Opportunities
This program is also part of Coca-Cola’s learning process around generative AI. The company is considering how the technology will change processes, personalization, and customer connections.
“We will begin to leverage OpenAI’s technology in our marketing function to reimagine how we produce creative content, increasing the velocity from weeks to days. We see many applications of AI – including content creation and rapid iteration, hyper-personalizing content and messaging for consumers and customers, and driving two-way conversations with consumers,” said Manolo Arroyo, global chief marketing officer at Coca-Cola.
You can submit entries up through March 31, 2023. The contest is open to residents of the United States, Canada (excluding the Province of Quebec), Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
Finalists will be notified on April 5, 2023, that their work will be displayed in Times Square and Piccadilly Circus. Grand Prize winners will be notified on May 1, 2023, and Coca-Cola will cover their expenses for travel to the Creative Magic Academy workshop in Atlanta.
If you submit an entry, please share it with me. I’d like to see it.
