‘We Should Own It’: Hershey’s Programmatic Chief on AI Agents and Media Mix Modeling

Why It Matters

By embedding proprietary AI agents into its MMM framework, Hershey demonstrates how CPG brands can tighten media efficiency, protect valuable data, and set a template for industry‑wide AI adoption in ad planning and buying.

Key Takeaways

• Hershey built AI agents to deliver MMM insights within weeks
• Relevance-over-reach strategy boosted Reddit ROI for Reese’s
• Media mix now 72% digital, 28% traditional
• Hershey retains ownership of AI tech and data contracts
• Planning agents being tested to complement buying algorithms

Pulse Analysis

The rise of agentic AI in advertising has moved beyond headline‑grabbing buying bots to more strategic applications like media‑mix modeling (MMM). Hershey’s recent year‑long effort to stitch together multiple AI agents illustrates how brands can automate the data‑heavy process of measuring campaign impact, delivering insights in weeks rather than months. By leveraging partners such as Mutinex and Tracer.tech, the company built a foundation that integrates sales data, media spend, and consumer behavior, enabling a faster feedback loop that aligns media tactics with business outcomes.

That analytical agility has reshaped Hershey’s allocation decisions, most notably by shifting spend toward Reddit, where the platform’s community‑driven environment proved to generate more units per advertising dollar for Reese’s. The relevance‑over‑reach philosophy—focusing on the right audience at the right moment—has helped the brand sustain a 72% digital, 28% traditional media split while still evaluating traditional TV upfronts. The AI‑driven MMM not only forecasts revenue impact of reallocating budgets but also surfaces granular insights that guide creative messaging and placement strategy.

Looking ahead, Hershey’s commitment to owning its AI infrastructure underscores a broader industry trend: brands are increasingly reluctant to cede data control to agencies. By keeping the technology and data contracts in‑house, Hershey can customize planning agents that feed hyper‑focused outputs into buying algorithms, a capability it has been testing with Chalice and major DSPs like The Trade Desk. This approach positions the company to scale AI‑enhanced planning across channels, setting a benchmark for other consumer goods firms seeking to blend human intuition with machine efficiency in a rapidly evolving ad tech landscape.