Mondelez using generative AI tool to cut marketing costs: Vice President Jon Halvorson

Mondelez using generative AI tool to cut marketing costs: Vice President Jon Halvorson

The packaged food manufacturer began developing the tool in 2024 with the IT firm Accenture

American multinational snack-maker Mondelez is using a new generative AI tool to cut costs to produce marketing content by 30-50 percent.

Jon Halvorson, Mondelez’s global senior vice president of consumer experience, said that the firm hoped to make short TV ads that would be ready to air before next year's holiday season, and potentially for the 2027 Super Bowl.

He informed that the Cadbury chocolate producer had invested over $40 million in the tool, and that savings would grow if the tool was able to make elaborate videos.

Faced with tariffs and shrinking shopper budgets, Mondelez, like other consumer goods companies, is considering adopting AI to slash the fee paid to advertising agencies and speed up developing and selling new products.

Meanwhile, its rivals, macaroni-and-cheese maker Kraft Heinz and Coca-Cola, have also been trying out AI for ads. In 2024, Coke ran AI-generated holiday ads. However, some consumers ridiculed the ads for the lack of emotion in the computer-created people.

Mondelez has not put human likeness in its AI-created content. It is using content generated by the new tool on social media for its Chips Ahoy cookies in the U.S. and Milka chocolate in Germany. An eight-second Milka video shows waves of chocolate rippling over a wafer, along with varied backgrounds depending on the targeted consumer.

Regarding the animations’ cost, Halvorson said, “It was in the hundreds of thousands. This type of set-up is orders of magnitude smaller."

In November, Oreo will use the tool for product pages on Amazon and Walmart in the U.S. For the coming months, the company will use the tool for Lacta chocolate and Oreo in Brazil, and Cadbury in the UK.

Tina Vaswani, vice president of digital enablement and data at Mondelez, mentioned that humans would always check what the tool produced to avoid any mishaps.

A document shared by the Chicago-based company read: “Mondelez has rules prohibiting highlighting unhealthy eating habits, vaping, over-consumption, emotionally manipulative language and the use of offensive stereotypes.’