How Kraft Heinz is using its 'Kraft-O-Matic' software to boost innovation

Kraft Heinz is banking on a new multi-year deal with Google to help it mine consumer data for new product opportunities and more personalized marketing. Speaking at today’s Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY) conference, Carlos Abrams-Rivera, president Kraft Heinz North America, said the partnership, announced late last week, is helping the parent of brands like Oscar Mayer, Velveeta and Jell-O to “build a bridge between identifying [consumer] needs and letting our consumers know we can meet these needs with our brands.” Kraft-O-Matic is Kraft Heinz’s cheeky name for a proprietary software and data science model that analyzes consumer behaviors across its brands, and integrates point-of-sale data, consumer panel responses and other marketing data. “In marketing, our challenge was to understand our consumers more granularly, and have the ability to reach them with the right content to offer the right products at the right time,” Abrams-Rivera said. Insights from the Kraft-O-Matic in turn feed an in-house content studio known as The Kitchen, where custom assets like websites and online ad messages are developed to support new products and promotions, Abrams-Rivera explained. This allowed the company to gain consumer traction on unusual innovations such as the pink candy-flavored Mac & Cheese variety it introduced last year at Valentine’s Day, and a website supporting its Flavor Boost packs bringing buffalo chicken, ranch and pizza spices to the Mac & Cheese dish. Google technologies are being utilized in multiple ways to support the digital transformation, the companies said. Register for Ad Age Next: Health & Wellness at AdAge.com/NextWellness. For instance, by leveraging platforms like YouTube and its creators, Kraft Heinz is getting a better handle on its consumer relationships and taking that knowledge to develop more effective and efficient marketing with Google ads. “Building upon its excellent relationship with Google Ads, Kraft Heinz has chosen to partner with Google Cloud to accelerate its digital transformation by unlocking new channels of consumer growth in a privacy-centric way,” Giusy Buonfantino, VP, consumer packaged goods at Google Solutions, said in a statement. Kraft Heinz is in the third year of a transformation under CEO Miguel Patricio built around harnessing the big company’s ability to scale. While early phases focused on its internal foundations and deployment of a new operating model, its results have begun to show up in financial reports. During today's CAGNY presentation, the company boosted its annual net sales growth projection to 2%-3%, up from 1% to 2%. The turnaround at Kraft Heinz has been “impressive,” JP Morgan analyst Tom Palmer wrote in note to clients today, on Tuesday said Nominate a barrier-breaking female marketing executive at AdAge.com/LeadingWomenAwards. “Big ships like this aren’t easy to turn around – and we are confident in [Patricio’s] strategy to build growth around top brands, categories, and regions,” he wrote, while sending a message of caution around the swelling value of Kraft Heinz stock, which is up more 16% in the last week and more than 12% in the calendar year.

How Kraft Heinz is using its 'Kraft-O-Matic' software to boost innovation

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