How do you celebrate 50 years of mixing things that probably shouldn’t work together — but somehow do?
For Mezzo Mix’s 50th anniversary, the task was to create a brand activation that felt as playful and unconventional as the product itself, while inviting people across Germany to actively take part.
We took 50 recognisable German “Alman things” — from the traditional to the painfully contemporary — and used generative AI to blend them into unexpected new combinations.
People could generate, share and vote for their favourite mixes online, turning a visual experiment into a participatory anniversary campaign.
The activation extended across social media, digital out-of-home, TV and packaging, turning the same participatory mechanic into a connected campaign ecosystem. Consumers could encounter the idea, create their own mixes, vote online and eventually see the winning combinations celebrated as part of the brand’s anniversary.
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Generative AI was not used as a visual gimmick, but as part of the campaign mechanic itself.
To keep the output recognisable and on-brand, we didn’t rely on open-ended prompting. Instead, we built the system around 50 curated cultural references and used Midjourney to blend them into controlled, repeatable combinations —
thus limiting the degree of hallucinations to a minimum.
Across the process, the team generated more than 20,000 images and spent over 50 hours refining the visual system.
It was the first campaign I worked on where AI wasn’t used for moodboards, concept visuals or storyboards, but became part of the actual consumer-facing idea.
Leading the team through that process meant figuring out how to move beyond random prompting and build a visual system that could be controlled, repeated and scaled —something that has shaped how I approach AI-supported creative workflows ever since.
The campaign culminated in a public anniversary event in Munich, where the final combinations were put to a live vote and the winning mix was crowned in front of the audience.
The event brought the digital participation mechanic into the physical world and closed the campaign with a proper birthday moment for the brand.
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Scholz & Friends x The Coca Cola Company
2023 -
Senior Art Director
Ai Team lead
Creative Direction
Concept Development
AI Visual Direction
Client Communications -
Creative Team
Daria Rustembakova (CD)
Rike Sieler (CD)
Daniel Aguilar (AD)
Kris Mehl (AD)