Hershey Bets on Agentic AI to Rethink $2B in Marketing Spend
2 days ago
- #Marketing Mix Modeling
- #AI Marketing
- #Data Analytics
- Hershey is using agentic AI to modernize marketing mix modeling (MMM), transforming it from a slow, retrospective process into a near real-time system.
- Partnering with platforms Mutinex (powered by Claude and Gemini) and Tracer automates MMM, speeding up analysis to support monthly decisions on media and trade spend.
- Previously, Hershey's manual MMM analysis had long delays, with 2024 data only available mid-2025, hindering timely marketing planning.
- Tracer cleans and standardizes fragmented data across marketing and retail systems, enabling Mutinex's models to run faster and more reliably.
- The shift addresses industry needs for better media measurement amid fragmentation and tight budgets, helping position marketing spend as an investment rather than a cost.
- Mutinex employs a multi-agent AI system with specialized agents for tasks like marketing econometrics and diagnosing model failures, reducing model run times to as little as three weeks.
- Hershey expects a 4-5% increase in revenue attributable to media and plans to measure its entire brand portfolio monthly (up from 3 times a year for select brands).
- The new system allows Hershey to make monthly decisions on over $2 billion in media and trade marketing investments, described as a game-changing moment for the organization.