INSIDE CPG'S AI ADVERTISING BOOM

How brands like Coca-Cola and Mondelēz are using AI to create ads faster, test smarter, and stretch their budgets further.

MARKETING & TECHNOLOGY MAR 2026

Coca-Cola's holiday ad and Svedka's Super Bowl commercial have something in common beyond selling drinks — both were made with AI. Across the consumer goods industry, marketing teams are quietly adding AI to how they create and test campaigns.

The results are hard to ignore. Mondelēz International used to take up to 10 weeks to produce a short social media video. Now it takes under five minutes.

"It doesn't seem that exciting. But it's actually driving impact."

— Jennifer Mennes, Mondelēz International

Testing ideas with synthetic audiences

Blue Chip Marketing now builds AI replicas of a brand's target customers — trained on real demographics and purchase data — and pitches creative ideas to them before involving real people. The feedback, says VP Sonja Evans, is "shockingly similar" to what actual consumers say. Brands can test multiple ad concepts this way without spending anything on production.

The risk of going too fast

Speed comes with a downside. Pumping out AI-generated content without care can feel hollow to consumers — what marketers are now calling "AI slop." Coca-Cola's AI holiday ad drew criticism online, yet it still became the most talked-about Christmas ad of 2025. The lesson: quality control still matters. At Mondelēz, nothing goes live without human approval.

Where things stand

A BCG study found 7 in 10 CPG marketing leaders expect AI to help them work faster — but only 13% have fully integrated it yet. The gap is real, and it's closing. Brands moving now are learning faster than those waiting on the sidelines.