Hershey says that the system, which it has spent nearly a year developing, will significantly drive marketing efficiency and data collection.
The US firm, which is one of the world’s largest chocolate producers, believes that modern marketing has become too complex, with consumers constantly overloaded with advertising across a multitude of channels.
As a result, brands’ marketing strategies are spread increasingly thin as they attempt to capture customer attention across an ever-growing list of touchpoints, which can make putting together a coherent marketing plan “nearly impossible”.
Vice president of consumer connection, Vince Rinaldi, explains that these difficulties pushed the manufacturer to explore opportunities with AI in a bid to streamline its marketing operations in an increasingly fractured media landscape.
In our overloaded world, reach is just a number. Relevance is the future.
Hershey VP of consumer connection, Vince Rinaldi
A new ad strategy
In order to develop this AI-powered marketing measurement and decision-making system - it was trained on three years’ worth of sales and marketing data.
Ultimately, the tool has been designed to help executives make faster decisions on where to spend advertising money, based on up-to-date market conditions instead of relying on older reports.
Scheduled to launch fully in May, Hershey says that the system will aggregate data from social media platforms, search engines, streaming services and other sources before standardising the information automatically – something that might previously have taken months to complete manually.
Previously, the firm’s main focus had been on maximising the number of people who saw its ads, but with this system it will instead prioritise showing ads that are relevant to specific audiences, while improving the return on its marketing spending.
This system will additionally enable Hershey to evaluate its marketing performance monthly, instead of updating its marketing mix model only three times a year as it had before.
With the rollout of the AI tool come further advantages, says Hershey, including controlling more of its own marketing data instead of relying on reporting from advertising platforms and media sellers.
Moreover, the tool will also help the business measure all of the brands with active advertising campaigns in its portfolio, as opposed to only closely measuring around five each year.
“In our overloaded world, reach is just a number. Relevance is the future,” said Rinaldi.
“By moving from simple spreadsheets to AI-powered systems, we’re not just working faster, we’re also making better decisions. And more importantly, we’re creating space for more critical thinking – the critical human element that cannot be replaced," said Rinaldi.
“AI will continue accelerating the pace of change in marketing, there’s no doubt. But at Hershey, we’re moving forward with confidence. Because we know we’ve built a solid foundation, and we’re ready for whatever comes next.”
Hershey is the latest in a slew of the world’s largest food manufacturers to turn to AI to improve its data collection and marketing; with Mondelēz, Unilever and Nestlé all making significant investments in the technology.
