**Mars’ ACE: Leveraging AI and Behavioral Data in Advertising Testing**
Advertising testing has long been a cornerstone of effective marketing strategies, offering valuable insights into consumer responses to advertisements. Traditionally, this research relied on standard survey methods, where participants were asked about their ad recall, preferences, and likelihood of future purchases before an ad was launched. However, this conventional approach has limitations due to its reliance on self-reported data, which can lead to inaccuracies. To overcome these challenges, Mars has introduced a groundbreaking proprietary method that utilizes consumer behavioral insights coupled with artificial intelligence (AI) to assess ad effectiveness.
**Behavioral Insights at Work**
Mars has harnessed various behavioral data types — including eye-tracking, facial reactions, skin conductivity, and EEG — to inform its ad-testing process. AI algorithms analyze this data to correlate specific metrics with successful sales outcomes, achieving an impressive 85% accuracy in predicting whether an ad will drive sales.
**A Legacy of Innovation**
As a family-owned business for over a century, Mars enjoys the freedom to adopt a long-term vision that transcends short-term financial pressures. This independence allows the company to innovate, such as in developing advertising tools that reshape industry norms.
In the consumer packaged goods (CPG) sector, Mars is renowned for its commitment to data-driven marketing and a culture that prioritizes evidence over bias. For over 15 years, the company has utilized leading behavioral research tools to evaluate the direct sales impact of advertising media on households, leveraging natural experiments and single-source panels to derive actionable insights.
However, in a fast-paced marketing world, the need for rapid decision-making outstrips traditional sales measurement processes. To meet this internal demand for speed and agility, Mars developed **Agile Creative Expertise (ACE)** — a behavioral proxy measure linked to business performance.
**Introducing ACE: The Future of Ad Testing**
ACE is an innovative AI-driven ad-testing tool that focuses on emotional responses elicited from audiences while they engage with video ads. This tool integrates traditional metrics like skip rates and click-through rates. Participants, recruited through Mars partnerships, consent to anonymized tracking during these studies. By testing hundreds of different pieces of content alongside established sales data, Mars has effectively correlated a range of attention and emotional responses with successful ad performance.
Through this process, data collected from the largest CPG behavioral study ever conducted—an initiative with Nielsen—was incorporated into ACE’s predictive algorithms. The result is a robust tool that demonstrates near 85% predictive accuracy for sales outcomes.
In 2019, advancements in AI made it possible for emotional recognition technology to transition from research environments into consumers' daily lives. After substantial refinement over six years, Mars launched ACE in 2020, transforming the ad-testing landscape.
**Validation Through Sales Correlation**
For ACE to gain acceptance and credibility, it was critical to establish a clear correlation with sales outcomes. Content was rated from 1-Star (no impact on sales) to 4-Star (significant sales impact), and results were consistently favorable. With ACE, 70% of the tested content achieved top ratings, up from 40% with previous methods.
ACE has accurately predicted sales responses for over 4,000 ads, demonstrating its reliability. The integration of facial response data has proven effective in measuring emotional engagement, and ongoing monitoring will ensure continued alignment with sales data.
This agile methodology not only surpasses traditional systems in speed and cost-effectiveness but also continually refines advertising strategy. While Mars explored various technological solutions to enhance data capture, less invasive techniques, such as basic facial recognition, prevailed as the most revealing.
**Appreciated and Adopted**
ACE has gained widespread acceptance throughout Mars, leading to the execution of over 1,000 projects across more than 25 countries in just 20 months. This tool has empowered Mars to enhance the effectiveness of digital ads on platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Amazon, contributing an impressive $30 million in additional sales.
Today, ACE is integral to shaping creative decisions across all digital platforms, demonstrating that higher "Attention" scores correlate with superior cross-channel performance. This insight informs not just what consumers notice but also the elements in ads that effectively capture their interest.
**Looking Ahead: The Role of AI in Advertising**
By using AI to ensure advertisements resonate emotionally and capture attention, Mars aims to maximize consumer engagement and elevate brand awareness. The interplay of artistic value and scientific measurement in advertising leaves room for human insight, and customer feedback will remain vital in refining future research methodologies.
As technology advances, the value of AI in ad testing will only escalate. Marketers will benefit from enhanced tools that simulate authentic consumer behavior, utilizing mechanisms like eye-tracking to optimize engagement. One day, we may even witness AI autonomously making strategic adjustments in real time, transforming how advertisements are created and delivered.
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