CANNES — The emergence of generative AI could revolutionize how brands create and target ads in connected TV (CTV), according to one of the world’s largest snack companies.
Mondelēz International, whose brands include Oreo, Cadbury and Trident, has been impressed at the development of CTV advertising capabilities over the last couple of years.
“At Mondelēz, we really leverage CTV to help understand what’s driving our effectiveness,” says Meghan Johnson, Head of Consumer Experience & Media, Americas, Mondelēz International, in this video interview with Beet.TV editorial director Lisa Granatstein. “We get deep into creative and into creative testing.”
From A/B To A-Z
Today, that means A/B testing different creative variants to see which resonates best with target consumers. But Johnson expects AI to supercharge that process.
“Where we see innovation for CTV in the future going is even more exciting,” she says.
“With application of gen-AI, we anticipate in the next couple of years moving from A-to-B creative testing to A-Z, where we’ll have dynamic iteration of copy really geared to what’s going to be most effective for the audience that we want to reach.”
Capability And Process
What is holding back that evolution? “Everything a little bit is capability,” Johnson says. “As we think about video and gen-AI, it’s only very recently that we’re getting to a point that we can really leverage gen-AI production, consumer-facing for video. But we expect that to change pretty rapidly.”
After that, she says legacy processes inside brands and agencies could be a stumbling block. “It’ll be really our imagination,” Johnson adds.
“I truly believe that is going to be the thing that’ll take the most time for us to really be able to get beyond – but all in service and all in favor of creating better dynamic consumer experiences for our consumers.”
Cliff-Hanger Creativity
In the meantime, Mondelēz is continuing to use CTV to drive ad effectiveness, not just efficiency. “We know one of the best drivers of effectiveness is creative to the right targeting,” Johnson says.
For example, for its Clif Bar brand, Mondelēz targets households containing workout enthusiasts. For Clif Kids, it aims for parents.
Across its portfolio, Mondelēz is striving for personalization. “Snacking is inherently personal,” Johnson says. “It’s something that you eat, it’s something that you share with your friends, with your family. It’s really important that we take that element, that depth of personalization and apply it to our advertising.”
She adds: “We know that 37% of people bite their heads off of their Animal crackers first. If we are able to take an insight like that and really bring it into something that’s going to resonate with our consumer, that’s where we see some really exciting innovation happening. That’s something that we can truly leverage what CTV brings to the table that we wouldn’t necessarily be able to do with linear today.”
For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
