The Holidays Are Coming

This month Coca-Cola debuted its holiday ad and reportedly used 70,000 AI prompts to bring it to life. That number is technically true, but deeply misleading. It wasn’t 70,000 prompts; it was 70,000 AI clips stitched together, generated through what was likely hundreds of thousands of prompts, refinements, reruns, and scene rebuilds. This is the second year in a row Coca-Cola has opted for an all-AI holiday ad, an ambitious signal that AI has changed the cost, speed, and scale of storytelling.

But it’s also a signal of something far more important: If you only read the headlines, you’ll completely misunderstand what it takes to produce AI content at this level. The Coke ad took five AI experts and an entire month of iteration to produce the 60 seconds you see on screen. If you’re a travel marketer scrolling through LinkedIn thinking, “We’re behind, we should be doing this,” you’re not behind. You’re reacting to the shiny surface, not the operational reality.

Where is the win for travel marketers?

Meanwhile, Molly’s Suds, an emerging laundry brand, used Amazon’s new Creative Agent to produce an AI-powered 15-second connected TV spot in minutes. Two drastically different brands, one message: AI production is here, but the gap between what’s possible and what’s practical is enormous.

And that gap is exactly where travel marketers can win.

1. AI Isn’t a Replacement for Your Creative Team. It’s an Amplifier.

The Coke ad wasn’t a “click once and generate Christmas magic” moment, it was industrial-scale iteration that costs the same as a traditional holiday ad to create.

This matters for travel marketers, because many leadership teams are asking the wrong question:

“Why aren’t we making AI ads like Coke?”

Instead of:
“Where does AI actually make us faster, smarter, or more relevant?”

Travel brands don’t need 70,000 prompts. They need tools that remove friction, not tools that require a small R&D lab. The opportunity isn’t to chase Coca-Cola’s output. The opportunity is to build internal AI fluency that compounds over time.

2. The Real Story: Tools Are Splitting Into Two Tracks

Track A: Industrial Creative AI (Coke)
– Large teams
– Massive prompt volume
– Dedicated technical artists
– Heavy iteration
– Studio-like pipelines

This is not where 99% of travel brands should start because it requires infrastructure, not curiosity.

Track B: Commercialized AI Tools (Molly’s Suds)
– Faster
– Template-driven
– Multi-model agents
– Designed for marketers, not engineers
– “Good enough” for performance, social, and CTV

This is the real wave that will reshape travel marketing first, not the cinematic, million-frame generative masterpiece, but the fast, personalized, channel-ready content that plugs into your media plan.

The gold isn’t in perfection. It’s in production velocity.

3. Travel Marketers Aren’t Late. We’re Early in a New Efficiency Curve.

Most DMOs and travel brands already have vast content libraries, destination footage, seasonal campaigns, audience personas, and media plans.

AI doesn’t replace any of that. It compresses production timelines and increases testing speed.

The biggest advantage travel marketers have? You already know the story. AI just helps you tell it more often, with more versions, in more places.

You’re not behind. You’re at the starting line of a toolset that is finally usable without a PhD, or a Super Bowl budget.

4. Focus on What Actually Moves the Needle

Here’s where travel wins long before “AI-generated holiday films” become mainstream:

– Rapid A/B creative for micro-audiences
– Faster seasonal pivots
– Personalization-level storytelling
– More shots on goal

You don’t win because you made one perfect ad. You win because you made fifty good ones and learned from the data.

AI’s true promise for travel marketing is efficiency, not spectacle.

5.  Don’t Chase the Headline. Build the Muscle.

Coke is building an AI-powered creative lab. Molly’s Suds is using a commercial tool to make a TV spot.

Your job isn’t to mimic either one. Your job is to ask:

Where does AI remove friction from our process today?
And where can it compound advantage over the next 12 months?

You aren’t late. You aren’t behind. You’re right on time, so long as you start building capability now. Earlier this year we talked to Mike Yates and the idea of dexterity over literacy and you are seeing this right here, right now.