New Snickers Campaign Utilizes Artificial Intelligence
CHICAGO — Snickers launched a first-of-its-kind generative artificial intelligence (AI) campaign, marking a big step forward in the personalization of brand campaigns and cocreation with consumers, the company stated.
With the help of José Mourinho, one of the world's most renowned football managers, the campaign features an authorized AI clone of Mourinho, who will coach football fans out of the "Own Goal" mistakes they score this summer.
[Read more: Mars Snacking Invests in Sustainable Dairy Production]
To create personalized videos of Mourinho for any fan submitting an "Own Goal," Snickers partnered with T&Pm and Helo, powered by ElevenLabs, Synclabs and Open AI GPT 4.0. The campaign sees eight separate stages in the AI pipeline create a unique "chain of thought" architecture, including safeguarding, to ensure consistently entertaining and brand-safe original content, helping each output to feel unique without relying on templated content.
Snickers also teamed up with Meta to integrate this bespoke AI-powered Mourinho with WhatsApp, an integration that allows consumers to bring their personalized interactions with the football manager into the communities and conversations they care about most.
No other AI-powered campaign has used the technology in this exact way before: trained to deeply mimic the personality of a major talent, to generate limitless pieces of original video content and designed to be shared to many, according to Mars Snacking.
"At Mars, we believe in building 'Brand Worlds' where iconic brands create remarkable experiences for their fans and communities inviting them to engage and cocreate together. Always at the center of culture, always moving at the speed of technology," said Gülen Bengi, chief growth officer, Mars Snacking and lead chief marketing officer, Mars Inc. "Our first-of-its-kind Snickers campaign stands as a testament to this, delivering consumer cocreation and personalization at a scale that was unimaginable until very recently, before GenAI became part of our toolbox.
"I'm very proud of our brand builders embracing possibilities, enhancing creativity and doing it responsibly. As we navigate this new frontier of AI-enhanced brand building, it's crucial that we keep a pioneering mindset tempered by caution, always putting safety and ethics first," she continued.
[Read more: Mars Makes Multiyear Investment in Manufacturing Facility]
The campaign has been teased with social videos of the real Mourinho on his and Snickers' social channels during the Champions League Final and in the build-up to the Euros. The tool, which is currently only available in the United Kingdom, went live on June 25.
"This campaign is indeed a special one. A great brand, an iconic coach and innovation at its heart — using AI to create mass-personalized entertainment in a way that has never been done before and could never have been done before — all made possible with [a] human intelligence team of over 70 people," saidd Toby Allen, chief creative officer at T&Pm.
Unlike typical football tournament sponsorships, this fan-centric approach uses fans to amplify the brand's message. The campaign is part of Mars Wrigley's strategy of putting personalization and fandom at the heart of its "world-building" strategy for Snickers. By involving fans in the cocreation process, the brand can develop a deeper relationship with consumers, driving exponential social sharing and conversation, Mars said.
The campaign marks another significant step toward Snickers achieving its goal of becoming the No. 1 confectionery brand for football fans by the end of 2025.
Chicago-based Mars Snacking is a division of Mars Inc. With almost $45 billion in annual sales, the global, family-owned business produces well-known brands, including Ben's Original, Cesar, Cocoavia, Dove, Extra, KIND, M&M'S, Snickers, Pedigree, Royal Canin and Whiskas.
Mars is also creating a better world for pets through its global network of pet hospitals and diagnostic services, including AniCura, Banfield, Bluepearl Linnaeus and VCA.