Brands used to rent a celebrity’s likeness for a campaign. The TV spot was shot, photos were taken and the rental agreement ended when the cameras stopped rolling. Now, marketers are turning talent into always on, hyperpersonalized digital personas using AI.
Take The Coca-Cola Company. Ahead of the FIFA World Cup, Coca-Cola announced the launch of a “José vs. Mourinho” social content series. But instead of featuring José Mourinho, the incoming manager of the Real Madrid soccer team, the series will be hosted by Mourinho’s AI clone.
From celeb rentals to always-on digital personas
Mourinho’s so-called digital twin is the brain child of Coca-Cola, Footballco media company, and entertainment studio and management company GRAiL. It’s powered by Google Cloud. The team worked directly with Mourinho to capture new audio and video to build the technology, said a spokesperson for the brand.
The social series will live across Footballco’s global football media and culture brand, GOAL. It’s in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, with subtitles in 10 languages. In all, more than 200 pieces of content will be produced and distributed during the World Cup beginning June 11.
The digital twin is powered by a human war room, with representatives from Mourinho’s camp to ensure brand safety. Meanwhile, others involved in the campaign watch matches, script post-match reactions, run them through brand and talent approvals and then use AI to deliver pre-approved commentary in Mourinho’s likeness. Financial and contractual agreements for Mourinho’s digital twin were not disclosed.
Content and scale become the AI standard
The language variations and onslaught of content speaks to the scale — something marketers have been tasking AI with since the early days of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Historically, talent can give brands one or two hours to shoot something that lives statically across media channels, Stefano D’Anna, president of Footballco, said. AI changes that.
“The ability to take a piece of real estate and adapt it to make it relevant on a daily basis is super smart,” D’Anna said of the AI-powered campaign.
While AI promises speed and scale, the project took several months to set up — longer than traditional creative campaign execution, to account for sign-offs and approvals, D’Anna added. But that’s par for the course, according to Sarah May Bates, svp, group creative director, director of AI and innovation at RPA.
Instead of being limited to a one-day shoot, a few spots and cutdowns, Bates argues AI tools allow for more work, customization and can reduce hard production costs, like travel and physical shoot logistics) anywhere from 40 to 50%, she said.
“We now have, let’s say, six spots, and every single one can have its own set of variations that are bespoke to whatever audience,” Bates said.
Public perception and brand safety
Coca-Cola has been pushing the envelope when it comes to using AI in consumer-facing work, which many marketers have been leery of for fear of public backlash. Recall, Coke caught flack for using AI to reimagine its “Holidays are Coming” commercials in 2024 and 2025. None of the critique has put a damper on beverage behemoth’s AI ambitions, according to Mickael Vinet, Coca-Cola global vp of sports, music and entertainment marketing and partnerships.
“We are looking [at] how this can help us to be more relevant, faster in a way that is more even specific and unique to the fans,” Vinet told Digiday. He added, “We are embracing it with humility, in a sense of it doesn’t mean it will be right in the first time all the way.”
Not everyone is convinced in the value of so-called digital twins. Marketers have increasingly tasked AI tools with everything from brainstorming to bidding on media. Some, however, draw the line at consumer-facing creative or anything to do with brand building. AI clones and digital twins change the value exchange between brand and celebrity, Steve Slivka, chief experience officer and partner at Manifest, told Digiday in an emailed statement.
“The value of working with a celebrity would be that people align with those actual humans and what they stand for,” Slivka said. He added, “A virtual character virtually liking a brand is a ruse and is essentially disposable.”
Growing trend of digital twins
Coca-Cola is one of several companies taking bigger swings with AI clones and digital twins.
This isn’t even the first time Mourinho has lent his likeness to a machine. Back in the summer of 2024, Snickers hired an AI-powered Mourinho to create personalized interactions with fans.
For this year’s Super Bowl, Avocados From Mexico launched a campaign helmed by actor Rob Riggle as a realistic AI avatar. Riggle’s digital twin interacted with users via personalized sports and live game predictions as well as guacamole recipes.
‘Consumers really don’t like noticing AI’
Marketers have made AI tools a mainstay to expedite and streamline the creative process. Only a few, like Coke, Snickers and Avocados From Mexico, have dared to replicate a human — that’s even as public disdain continues to mount.
“In the creative, in our experience, consumers really don’t like noticing AI — especially younger consumers. They really don’t want to see it,” said Paul Caiozzo, CCO at Tombras. Tombras’ clients haven’t asked for their digital twins — at least not yet. The agency is, however, leveraging AI tools to scale content. For example, Tombras was able to recreate full campaign assets from two still food images, according to Caiozzo.
Research from the IAB backs up Caiozzo’s point of view. Earlier this year, the IAB found 82% of ad executives believed Gen Z and millennials felt positively about AI-generated ads. In reality, only 45% of those consumers actually felt that way. Beginning this month, New York will require advertisers to disclose whether AI-generated synthetic performers are used in ad creative.
Coca-Cola, however, isn’t backing down. As the tech continues to mature, Vinet said digital capabilities, like digital twinning, will become central to Coke’s dialogue with talent and rights holders.
“We digitalize the company in all fronts — the way we work, as well as indeed the way we want to engage with the consumers,” he said.