Behind Every Big-Brand AI Ad, There Is a Studio

A persistent idea says AI video is made by typing a sentence. The big brands that use it tell a different story.

What the big brands actually did

Coca-Cola worked with three AI studios on its 2024 holiday ad: Secret Level, Silverside AI and Wild Card. For 2025, the brand again brought in Secret Level and Silverside AI. Secret Level’s founder estimates the project took about 20 people. According to Coca-Cola, AI gave precise control over camera angles and character consistency, and made it efficient to produce several versions for different regions.

McDonald’s Netherlands handed its 2025 holiday ad to the production studio The Sweetshop, with the Dutch agency TBWA\Neboko. According to the studio’s CEO, the project took around ten people full time for several weeks.

The McDonald’s ad was pulled after a few days; Coca-Cola’s was renewed. We analysed why. But in both cases, nobody pressed a button.

Fewer people, but not nobody

Team size as estimated by Secret Level’s founder

AI productionConventional production

Fewer people, but not nobody

Item	Value
Coca-Cola AI ad, 2025	≈ 20 people
Same complexity, conventional	50+

A new craft, not a shortcut

What these projects show is that AI moves the work more than it removes it. Secret Level’s founder compares his roughly 20 people with the 50-plus a project of the same complexity would need otherwise. Fewer people, then. But not nobody. The budget leaves the film set and goes to other roles: direction, writing, generation, shot-to-shot consistency, editing, sound, quality control.

Coca-Cola says it plainly in its release: creative ambition, direction and thought leadership remain human-led. AI is framed as a tool that serves people, where it makes sense.

Five questions to ask before hiring an AI studio

For a smaller business, the lesson is not to chase Coca-Cola’s budget. It is to pick a partner that works like a studio, not like a content machine.

1. Who directs? One person should own the tone, the pacing and the final call on every shot. Ask for their name and background.

2. How is consistency handled? A face, a product or a location has to stay identical from shot to shot. That takes reference sheets.

3. How many revision rounds, and when? A good process approves the story before generating, not after.

4. How are rights and consent handled? Voices, faces, music: anything that touches a real person must be authorised in writing.

5. What does the portfolio show, and is it labelled honestly? Real engagements or spec pieces, mixed production or fully AI: a serious studio tells you. Here is ours.

AI video lowered the cost of entry. It did not lower the need for craft.