February 27, 2024
This year is set to change marketing forever. As a Leading Snacking Powerhouse, we’re always thinking about what’s next, how we innovate to meet people where they are and how people engage with content.
I recently joined the Consumer Technology Association’s CES panel with our partners at Google Marketing Platform to discuss the major shifts we anticipate in the coming year, as technologies like AI evolve daily and tools our industry has relied upon for years fade into the background.
Here’s a look at how technology, data, creativity and people can help marketers go back to basics – and bring all advertising elements together again.
Watch the Jan. 10 CES replay of 2024: The Year Marketing Will Change Forever featuring host Michael Kassan, MediaLink, and panelists Kristen O’Hara, Google, and Vinny Rinaldi, The Hershey Company.
Leveraging AI for More Efficiency
Today, we hear about AI everywhere we turn – with many focused on the tech replacing jobs. But the reality is that in marketing, AI isn’t replacing jobs. It makes our jobs more efficient by enabling us to make better-informed decisions more quickly.
To put this in perspective, let’s look at how our team used AI to automate our media bidding strategy during Halloween, our biggest season.
We started by developing a custom algorithm by feeding sales data into our media algorithms, broken down by zip code. Once built, we let AI take over. By increasing ad spending where sales were effectively under the national sell-through average of 85%, we were able to focus our dollars where it mattered most, driving a sell-through of 90% in the underperforming market during our Halloween season. It was a fun challenge to solve and required human-powered creativity to steer the AI.
Thinking Holistically About Data
To be sure we have the right inputs to inform our creativity, we must think about our data in one place. Bringing inputs together is not easy, but the results prove it’s worthwhile because we need to think holistically about our marketing options.
For our KitKat® brand, we saw tremendous results by consolidating our media into the Google Marketing Platform and then opening it up to Google AI. We achieved an incremental reach of 16 million, and we saw 87% improved efficiency and ROI. Now we’re exploring ways to incorporate these learnings into future plans.
Remembering to Pull at the Heart Strings
In recent years, advertisers have been so focused on data-driven marketing that our industry has forgotten the importance of creativity. But we know consumers aren’t just numbers. As technologies like cookies go away, we can reset and think more critically about how we can personalize the media we’re delivering to unique audiences. And the brands that win are the ones that tug at your heartstrings.
For example, we know the love our consumers have for our Reese’s brand is unmatched. To announce our most recent innovation, Reese’s Caramel Big Cup, we took the opportunity to play up the emotion of this fandom on one of sport’s biggest stages.
Earlier this year, we created a moment of chaos when we hinted to fans that we might change their beloved Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. We creatively engaged with fans to make them ask why we would ever make such a change. In this case, our data wasn’t hard numbers but human insights.
After allowing fans to question the fate of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups for a few weeks, we unveiled our first Big Game commercial since 2020. We weren’t changing our product – just making it better by adding a layer of gooey caramel and creating a fun fake-out that developed an emotional connection with our audience. It also helped show how we always listen to who matters most – our consumers.
Upskill Talent to Win
With how quickly AI changes our industry, talent mustn’t be left behind. We need to give them the right tools and capabilities to move at the speed of AI and keep up with opportunities. For those just entering our industry, this is more important than ever.
At Hershey, we’ve partnered internally and externally with learning and development experts to ensure we provide the necessary data and contextually-focused training to win in a modern marketing world. As we move forward, we’re layering on key learnings to enhance our brands in new, creative ways.
2024: The Year of Fundamentals
This is our moment to reset and bring together technology, data and creativity without over-indexing in any area to elevate everyone around us and build more human connections with the brands we represent.
So, to all my fellow marketers, let's put all the buzzwords and channels aside and call this "The Year of Fundamentals." After all, this is the history upon which our industry was built. #CES2024 #MediaLinked
