What we learned about AI from an internal competition

Welcome to AI2, where I discuss trends in artificial intelligence and share my opinion on what they mean for the consumer insights and market research industry.

We recently hosted an AI competition at Zappi. We tasked Zappi employees to use our AI Marketing Agents to create a new product concept (you can learn more about the Marketing Agents in an earlier edition of my newsletter). 

I wanted to share a little about why we did it and what we learned about AI-generated concepts. And then show you the full concepts the winner submitted. 

Why did we hold this competition? 

We had a few reasons to do this. 

First, we wanted to encourage our staff to get their hands dirty with AI. We wanted them to play around with it, and firing up their competitive spirits is the easiest way to get that to happen. Everyone at Zappi is very busy and most of them aren’t going to take the time to play around with something like this just for fun. They need an incentive to push them to do it. 

Once they’re there and once they discover what it can do, I figured it would get people thinking more about the applications of AI — specifically how they can use Zappi’s AI Marketing Agents. Those who are customer-facing will naturally start thinking about which of their customers would benefit the most from our marketing agents and other AI functionality. Our sales people will be better positioned to sell it if they’ve played around with it. Our marketing team would be better equipped to promote it effectively.

And even broader than that, I expected it would get the team thinking more tangibly about the benefits and capabilities of AI. 

We also wanted to generate a number of concepts and test them with consumers to learn more about how to optimise AI-generated concepts.

And finally, from a product perspective, it’s a great QA opportunity to have over 100 Zappi employees test out the product and give feedback! 

What did we learn? 

We used the consumer data already collected by Mars as a starting point, so the AI agents had a solid base of consumer understanding to pull from. Nic Fry ☕️ , Global Agile Innovation Human Intelligence Director at Mars, helped us pick the top 10 concepts. We ran those 10 concepts through Activate It, Zappi’s advanced concept testing solution, to let the consumers choose the winners. 

Of the competition, Nic said: 

Thrilled to see the outcomes of the Zappi competition. What a talented bunch of humans. Lots of sparks of great ideas for us to ponder. If anyone from the competition would like a job on my team, reach out 😉 

From the 10 concepts we tested, we found that all the concepts are highly distinctive, which is in line with what we’ve seen before with AI pushing boundaries and being creative. 

But as you can see in the chart below that shows how all 10 concepts scored in Activate It, only the first place concept generated high trial potential. In the other nine concepts, we saw some low ratings around clarity and believability, which may come down to some lack of specificity. 

But the winner did manage to generate a concept that was high in both trial and breakthrough potential. What did she do differently? We can see that she spent some time iterating on the concept with the AI agents — riffing about the different elements of the product mix like name, packaging, ingredients.

I think the ultimate takeaway is very positive for marketing and insights professionals. Right now, AI tools can be very useful in helping you to push boundaries, but it takes collaboration from a human to lead to the best results. Zappi employees are not as well-versed in the category as Mars employees, so I would expect that Mars would be more likely to create even stronger concepts. 

A knowledgeable human that works with the AI to guide it to the best concept can create a concept that will lead to both trial and breakthrough. 

This is what Nic had to say about working with Zappi’s Marketing Agents: 

We are excited about our partnership with Zappi and AI Marketing Agents as we are invested in delivering value well beyond efficiency. We are more interested in the philosophy of Slow AI and the time and optimisation it takes to really land successful long-term innovation.

What was the winning concept? 

To wrap up, here’s a look at the winning concept. 

But first to give you some context, this is what Zappi employees were asked to create with AI: 

We want you to create a new snack concept for Mars Wrigley to satisfy the Relax and Unwind need state. This need state has two variants:

Scheduled Reset

A moment to get from a state of feeling tired or lacking focus, to feeling able to return to tasks refreshed. Sometimes scheduled, sometimes stolen but always needed.

Fully Unplug

After a busy day meeting the demands of other people and holding it all together, fully unplugging means reclaiming your time as your own, being yourself and doing the things that bring comfort and joy. Snacks are my companion.

Your concept should address either of these need states.

This is the first-place winner, according to consumers: 

Twix Nirvana (submitted by Kim Malcolm )

Tagline: Revel in the Richness

Brief Description

Welcome to the epitome of gratification with Twix Nirvana, your personal pass to snack splendour. Our premium concoction enchants with its familiar symphony of luscious caramel and crunchy shortbread, elevated by a unique layer of gourmet dark chocolate and an extra drizzle of sumptuous sea salted caramel. These bite-sized delights orchestrate an inviting escape, transforming your 'me time' into an excursion of exceptional extravagance.

Reasons to Buy

1. Indulgent Twist: Twix Nirvana takes you a step beyond the classic Twix experience. The additional drizzle of sea salted caramel harmonises with the gourmet dark chocolate, creating a balance of flavours that allows for a more profound indulgence.

2. Me-Time Maximiser: Make every moment of 'me time' count with Twix Nirvana. Our perfect blend of familiar and novel delights acts as a happiness booster, embellishing your quality time with an unforgettable taste journey.

3. Enhanced Quality Standards: Known for consistent standards in the realm of confectionery, the Twix brand brings you Nirvana - not just an upgrade, but an elevation. Rely on our continued dedication to providing you with unique premium experiences that add a dose of delight to your everyday life.

Final thoughts

I’d encourage every company to run some kind of internal AI competition. This specific competition may not be relevant to every company (although if you’re a Zappi customer you can run this kind of competition with our Marketing Agents and your own customer data!), but there is probably something else you can think of that will make sense for your business. 

It was fun seeing Zappi staff get excited about playing around with AI, and very interesting to see the types of concepts they came up with. It was especially interesting to see their personalities and interests reflected in their AI-generated concepts. 

What have you done internally to get your employees interested in AI? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.