60 days to launch: Coca-Cola reaches millions with immersive campaign built on Azure

“It all started with an iconic asset and a magical idea,” says Pratik Thakar, VP and Global Head of Generative AI at Coca-Cola. “We wanted to create a first-of-its-kind holiday campaign by bringing to life the famous Sundblom Santa popularized by Coca-Cola back in 1931. This jolly rendition of Santa is instantly recognized around the world—he’s helped create special memories for millions of people across the decades.”

For Coca-Cola, the desire to create a two-way dialogue with Santa marked a new frontier in its ability to quickly stand up a marketing campaign capable of traversing 43 countries and 26 languages. “It was an ambitious campaign! We knew conversational AI was going to be big, so we embraced the power of technology to help us inspire meaningful connections between friends and loved ones, a hallmark of our holiday campaigns.” says Pratik Thakar, VP and Global Head of Generative AI, Coca-Cola

Using an assembly of innovative, leading-edge technologies, Coca-Cola replicated the beloved Santa in digital 3D, gave him the ability to have real-time, memory-sharing conversations with consumers, then animated him to co-create with young and old a personalized, musical snow globe to instantly share. 

Laying the foundation for AI with Azure

This transformative “Create Real Magic” holiday campaign was possible with Coca-Cola’s migration to Microsoft Azure—a decision that not only modernized its operations, but also instilled the confidence and capability to bring its nostalgic Santa to life. 

Coca-Cola’s migration to Azure began five years ago, with the transformation happening in three phases:   

• Initial migration to IaaS: Coca-Cola first moved its enterprise workloads to Azure using infrastructure as a service (IaaS), deploying Windows and Linux virtual machines for scalable computing. 

• Adoption of PaaS and SaaS: It modernized to platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS), building scalable applications and automating workflows.

• AI-ready transformation: Migration enabled Coca-Cola to co-locate data, reducing latency and ensuring seamless interoperability with AI models. 

Coca-Cola understands the significance of having a solid, AI-ready foundation as the backbone for its AI innovation. Using Azure AI Speech in Azure AI Foundry, Coca-Cola was able to assimilate vast amounts of data from global markets into the Santa campaign. “Without this robust foundation,” Ramakrishnappa notes, “innovative campaigns like ‘Create Real Magic’ would not have been scalable or feasible.” 

“Our Azure journey started with IaaS and progressed to PaaS and SaaS, creating a robust platform, and optimized operations to build the kinds of campaigns we are building,” says Thakar. 

Managing a complex global project in 60 days

Creating a holiday campaign sensation that touched millions around the world, and doing it all within 60 days, showcased Coca-Cola’s ability to execute ideas quickly and at scale. 

Key steps taken:

 1. Defining the vision and goals

• Coca-Cola aimed to expand its reach and deepen emotional connections with customers. 
• The campaign aligned with the company’s global brand ethos of combining “real and magic.” 

2. Assembling a cross-functional team

• Coca-Cola collaborated with a host of global best-in-class providers.  
• Teams from multiple regions worked in tandem to address diverse market needs. 

3. Accessing Azure capabilities

• Azure AI Foundry. Provided the AI toolchain for developing and testing the application.
• Azure AI Speech. Simplified the process with the prebuilt multimodal and multilingual capabilities in custom neural voice and text to speech avatar offered within Azure AI Foundry. 
• Azure Container Apps. Hosted the campaign’s back end and front end, helping ensure reliability and scalability. 
• Azure Functions. Simplified serverless workflow orchestrations across AI, data, and event sources.
• .NET Aspire. Built the app using this set of tools, templates, and packages for building observable, production-ready apps. 

Overcoming complexity with Azure

The interoperability of Azure was critical in unifying the diverse technologies required for the campaign. Coca-Cola used the API-driven Azure ecosystem to bring together third-party solutions while maintaining a cohesive development workflow. Serverless features in Azure Functions, such as triggers and bindings, seamlessly handled Coca Cola’s events and data processing across Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Service Bus, and Azure Blob Storage using a preferred format. This approach enhanced productivity with fewer lines of code. 

Azure AI Foundry played a pivotal role in managing and deploying AI models at scale, while Azure AI Speech supported effortless and natural multilingual conversations. This architecture allowed Coca-Cola’s developers to focus on innovation rather than operational overhead. 

Describing the campaign’s unique challenges and collaborative efforts, Thakar explains, “We wanted to create something never seen before while staying authentic to our heritage. With Microsoft’s support, we co-created tools to solve complex technical challenges like multilingual lip sync for Santa’s avatar.” 

In the Create Real Magic app diagram below, consumers’ speech runs through their device into Azure. An orchestrator sends it to Azure AI Speech for speech to text conversion, then to OpenAI. The response returns to the avatar module, where custom neural voice projects Santa to the device.

Using Azure to create a repeatable blueprint for developers  

The modularity and integration capabilities in Azure provide a blueprint for managing complex, large-scale projects. Developers can: 

• Use Azure Container Apps for scalable app deployment

  • Rapid scaling to accommodate millions of users simultaneously interacting with the campaign.
    Coca-Cola used Container Apps to orchestrate its containerized applications. The service’s built-in tools for load balancing and autoscaling helped ensure the platform remained responsive even during peak usage. 

  • Simplified serverless workflow orchestrations across AI, data, and event sources. Using Azure Functions, Coca-Cola automated the communication between different components, such as processing user inputs, querying AI models, and generating personalized outputs. This serverless approach reduced operational overhead and improved resource efficiency. 
     

• Employ Azure AI Foundry tools and services for multilingual and multimodal applications

  • The campaign relied on Azure AI Speech, found in Azure AI Foundry, and text to speech services to deliver seamless multilingual interactions. Developers fine-tuned neural voice models to ensure authenticity in every supported language, while multimodal capabilities enabled the integration of text, voice, and visual elements. 
     

• Build with confidence, using end-to-end monitoring and security features in Azure

  • Coca-Cola used Azure Monitor and Microsoft Defender for Cloud to help ensure compliance with global data regulations and maintain high availability. These tools provided real-time insights into system performance and security, enabling proactive issue resolution and helping ensure the campaign’s reliability. 

Ramakrishnappa emphasizes the measurable benefits, explaining, “With end-to-end solutions in Azure, we achieved unprecedented global scale and personalization. The campaign’s ROI exceeded expectations, driving both engagement and brand loyalty.” 

Confirming Microsoft technology as best choice

Coca-Cola’s decision to adopt Microsoft Azure was instrumental in the campaign’s success. Key differentiators included: 

1. Comprehensive AI capabilities

• Azure AI Foundry. Developers used the AI platform to efficiently test Azure AI Speech features, enabling Coca-Cola to quickly scale from proof of concept to production within tight deadlines.
• Azure AI Speech. Coca-Cola used the tools in this service to implement real-time, natural-language conversations across 26 languages, with sub-millisecond performance outcomes. This was achieved using prebuilt multimodal and multilingual neural voice models in Azure, fine-tuned for cultural nuances and accents, which made interactions with Santa feel authentic and engaging. 

2. Scalability and flexibility

• Azure Container Apps. Supported the massive scale of the campaign by managing containerized workloads. The platform’s autoscaling features helped ensure responsiveness, regardless of user traffic spikes. 
• Interoperability with third-party tools. With the open ecosystem of Azure, Coca-Cola brought together third-party services for image generation and conversation logic, creating a truly multimodal experience that combined text, images, and speech seamlessly. 

3. Security and compliance

• Built-in security features. The multilayered security controls in Azure helped protect user data from potential breaches so that Coca-Cola could meet stringent global privacy standards. 
• Compliance with regional regulations. Coca-Cola used the platform’s ability to operate within multiple regions while adhering to local data compliance laws. For example, .NET Aspire services helped ensure the campaign met General Data Protection Regulation requirements in Europe and other similar standards worldwide. 

By combining these capabilities, Coca-Cola achieved a unified and reliable platform that met the campaign’s ambitious goals. Thakar summarizes the value of the partnership: “Azure AI Foundry has taken us to the next level of marketing, consumer engagement, and economic impact. AI technology has become essential to communicating our brand essence securely and broadly.” 

Realizing tangible ROI

The “Create Real Magic” campaign generated impressive results. 

• Global engagement. More than 1 million users interacted with Santa across 43 markets in just three weeks.

• Personalized experiences. Customers created snow globes tailored to their holiday memories, sharing them widely on social media.

• Emotional connections. Users could share their favorite holiday memories with Santa and watch him recreate them in personalized snow globes, enabling Coca-Cola to bring joy and nostalgia to countless families.

• Brand impact. Coca-Cola reinforced its image as an innovative, customer-centric brand, resonating across diverse cultures and age groups. 

The application was easy to use. Customers scanned a QR code, entered their favorite holiday memory, and watched as Santa responded in their language. Moments like these created an emotional ripple effect. Parents captured their children’s amazement as they heard Santa’s personalized responses. Grandparents shared stories of their favorite snow globes, sparking laughter and warmth in households around the world. 

Thakar shares a heartfelt observation, recalling, “When I saw videos of kids giggling as Santa spoke to them, and families bonding over their snow globes, I knew we had created more than just a campaign. We were creating memories.”  

Innovating with more freedom and creativity

Coca-Cola’s “Create Real Magic” campaign exemplifies how cloud migration and AI integration can drive innovation, efficiency, and customer engagement. The collaboration with Microsoft not only met but exceeded Coca-Cola’s goals, setting a new standard for global, personalized advertising campaigns. 

With a solid AI-ready foundation, Coca-Cola is poised to continue delivering groundbreaking consumer experiences that combine the magic of its heritage with the power of modern technology. As Ramakrishnappa puts it, “This is just the beginning. With Azure, the possibilities are limitless.” 

Discover more about Coca-Cola on Facebook, Instagram, X/Twitter, and YouTube.