The Coca-Cola Company promotes Pratik Thakar to new role

The Coca-Cola Company has promoted Pratik Thakar (pictured left) to the role of global head of generative AI at its marketing transformation office. 

He has been with the company since 2013, having held the roles of VP of APAC creative and content excellence, director of integrated marketing communications for the ASEAN business unit and head of global creative strategy and content which was his penultimate role before being promoted to his current role.

"I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as global head of generative AI marketing transformation office at The Coca-Cola Company," he said.

Prior to The Coca-Cola Company, Thakar was the chairman for the World Federation of Advertisers’ APAC wing from 2020 to 2022, a position he took on after being the executive VP and chief strategy officer of Grey Group’s Greater China wing.

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Thakar spent the largest chunk of his illustrious career at McCann Worldgroup, where he took on various roles over the course of nine years from 2003 to 2012. These roles included that of managing director and chief strategy officer in the Kuala Lumpur office, EVP and chief planning officer in the China office, followed by chief strategist and innovation catalyst of the Greater China region as gleaned from his LinkedIn profile.

His first stint working at a creative agency was as planning director at Saatchi & Saatchi Asia.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out for more information.

Coca-Cola has been pushing ahead as it embraces AI in its marketing efforts as of late. Recently, it launched a “Create Real Magic” platform, that combines the capabilities of GPT-4, which produces human-like text from search engine queries, and DALL-E, which produces images based on text.  Fans in select countries were able to access dozens of branded elements – from the distinctive Coca-Cola contour bottle and Spencerian script logo, to storied symbols from Coke’s advertising archives such as the Coca-Cola Santa Claus and Polar Bear – as a canvas for AI-powered experimentation and creative iteration. 

Thakar at that point said that “Create Real Magic” signals the company’s commitment to move quickly to test, learn and scale ideas using AI. 

“It’s an experiment to see where co-creation can take us,” Thakar said. “We’re moving at the speed of culture with an innovative program that’s very tangible for the creative community. 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.” 

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