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Nutella 'Hired' an Algorithm to Design New Jars. And It Was a Sell-Out Success
- unabst 9y agoThis is genius marketing. They flipped "random labels" into "robotic algorithm of success". There isn't much to the story because that is all they did. But if the customers love the bottles, sales are up, and the brand refreshed their image, then this was a 10/10 execution by the folks responsible for it.
- SamBam 9y agoThis title made it seem like the algorithm was a proprietary piece of software that Nutella licensed for a limited time. It might have been interesting to discuss what it means to "hire" and algorithm vs a person. But I think it just means they (the ad agency) wrote an algorithm.
- ghostbrainalpha 9y agoIt's even worse than that. "The "algorithm" is called HP Mosaic and is included free in HP SmartStream Designer for HP printers."
- jordanrobinson 9y agoA little disappointing that there doesn't seem to be anything more in-depth than "An algorithm did it" in the article, or it seems in any of the articles I could find on this.
- jawns 9y agoI agree. There's a wide range of possibilities here. In the most basic implementation, you'd have 6 features, each with 14 possibilities, and you choose one option from each and combine them. That gets you 7.5 million combinations. A more sophisticated implementation might pull from a larger number of features and options and apply complex transforms to produce nonformulaic output. My guess is that what's actually cutting-edge here is not the algorithm or the designs, but the ability to print custom labels at all. My guess, though, is that it's only cost-effective as a publicity stunt. Printing 7 million identical labels is likely far less expensive.
- sharemywin 9y agoIf your talking fractions of a penny per label even if the costs was 400% higher it might not affect overall profitability of the product.
- karthikb 9y agoIdentical labels will usually use flexographic printing with cut steel templates which transfer the ink to the plastic. Being able to customize each bottle is pretty cool in its own right.
- _rpd 9y agoThe "algorithm" is called HP Mosaic and is included free in HP SmartStream Designer for HP printers. It was first used in a Coke marketing campaign in 2014 ... http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/extraordinary-collection-coke-israel-creates-2-million-unique-diet-coke-bottles http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/extraordinary-collec...
- seanp2k2 9y agoI'm somewhat disappointed that they just used a feature in a consumer program to do this. I expected it to be some "collaboration", ala " ferrero x hp ".
- _rpd 9y agoI don't think it detracts from the creative achievement. The designer still has to know how to use the tool properly and make good choices for the patterns and colors. But yeah, the headline is silly. It's the equivalent of "Vogue hired an algorithm to touch up new photos of models."
- ranieuwe 9y agoMore about how the algorithm works here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hp-mosaic-20-steven-chow https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hp-mosaic-20-steven-chow
- mcphage 9y ago> HP Mosaic takes the vector PDF file as input (also known as a Seed file), and generates a large number of variations on the file by transforming it — scaling, transposition, and rotation — randomly. Okay, that's a little disappointing—I was hoping for some sort of image generation, rather than just cropping. But the output still looks good, so I'm not going complain too loudly.
- newsbinator 9y ago> "Yes, algorithm. The word you hardly knew until HBO's Silicon Valley focused an entire show about the immense power and responsibility that comes with creating one." Hard to imagine, but possible. Surely in 2017 the average person would know what an algorithm is, outside of any tv show. Right?
- k-mcgrady 9y agoI'm sure most people would have a very basic understanding (e.g. they know what the word means but can't define/explain it to another person) but anything deeper than that I would doubt. I know it sounds ridiculous but as a self-taught developer I had released popular software and was still in the bracket above before actually taking more of an interest in CS.
- vollmond 9y agoNah. <anecdata>My wife is very technically minded (and has been married to me, a software developer, for over 10 years) and I just taught her (with more effort than I expected) what an algorithm is.</anecdata>
- cm2012 9y agoNo way. You know only 25% of Americans have college degrees right? And few know how things like search engines work. Maybe 25% of the population has a vague idea of that word meaning, 10% could accurately define it.
- sndean 9y ago> You know only 25% of Americans have college degrees right? And most college degrees [0] don't require anything beyond basic math (e.g., intro to statistics or calc) where "algorithm" might not even be said. Might be overcompensating because I go the entire day only talking to people with PhDs (where 100% could define it?), but I really think << 10% could accurately define it. [0] https://blog.suny.edu/2014/05/most-popular-college-majors-over-40-years/ https://blog.suny.edu/2014/05/most-popular-college-majors-ov...
- maxwellito 9y agoThey should focus more on the UX. I never been able to remove seal correctly.
- nlawalker 9y agoNew labels. Here I was hoping that they had finally made a jar you could actually get all the product out of.
- alyx 9y agoOr one with better ingredients.
- elliottcarlson 9y agoThat's how you get horrible one-off utensils like https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1508505428/spoonani https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1508505428/spoonani
- moftz 9y agoI was hoping the algorithm was to design a new shape of a jar rather than the label of the jar. There are tons of variables and constraints to consider for the jar shape. You want something easy for people to scoop out the product and to get all of it without wasting anything (or maybe an acceptable amount of waste so they go buy a new jar sooner but don't feel like they waste money). Also lid shape and size, easy to open and close but as minimal as possible. How efficient can you pack the jars in a box while keeping the box weight under whatever the standard person should carry without needing help. And also how easy it is to actually make the injection molded jar, too complex a design would cause too many jar rejects. And also just overall look, does the jar look like a jar? Human designers usually have a general idea of what a container should look like before adjusting the design to be cost efficient but if you give a computer program just a list of constraints and tell it to go wild, I'm sure you would get some innovative designs that most people wouldn't think of. Think back to when condiments started coming in the upside down squeeze bottles. No company immediately went from the glass ketchup bottle to the upside down squeeze bottle overnight so it was a long process of interim designs until someone realized what the ideal shape and features the current ketchup bottle should have. Sometimes the most common design practice isn't necessarily the best or cheapest. Bottled water used to be made of very thick plastic with large caps that were sometimes not able to be recycled. The designs have changed to more thinner, ergonomic shapes with better usage of materials both as a cost cutting effort and a green effort. It would be interesting to see genetic algorithms used for things like packaging design in the future.
- deelowe 9y ago> until someone realized what the ideal shape and features the current ketchup bottle should have And then someone had the great idea to create "dripless" bottle caps for both mustard and ketchup. Now my hotdogs always end up with a huge blob of mustard on one end.
- post_break 9y agoShoving a chop stick into the cap can "fix" this for you.
- agotterer 9y agoThis is very similar to a campaign Absolut Vodka did where they used spray guns to create unique bottles. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/13/absolut-unique-vodka-bottles_n_1882025.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/13/absolut-unique-vodk...
- lowglow 9y agoI think the biggest oversight is the actual feedback portion of sales to train the model on which features sold the best.
- 52-6F-62 9y agoI was coming here looking for something like this -- a little more elaborate than this, but like this nonetheless. The algorithm could probably be nearly anything as long as it output a mix of complementary, or aesthetically pleasing colours and simple patterns. Psychology might do a better job designing labels than this algorithm. I understand the work of the algorithm is to produce the actual designs, so it accounts for the colours and patterns, but from a higher order all we are really seeing is: >> People like colour, make lots of colour. Simple is memorable, make simple. Punchy is eye-catching, make punchy. I would be more taken if there was indeed a feedback loop, or further testing on people to see exactly which patterns/colours had the highest number of takers, and a poll to corroborate whether or not they chose consciously or unconsciously.
- sogen 9y agoThey could measure which designs sold faster: which pastel designs, vibrant colors, dots, shapes, etc., and get a quick overview of the preferences.
- 52-6F-62 9y agoI think that's what would inform an interesting algorithm... but maybe I'm just conflating ideas. I think I'd be more smitten with a machine learning model that at first presented designs, then took as feedback sales data that informed its design progression. In the end, sure the patterns are catchy. I guess that's all people really care for in a Nutella label. :P
- sogen 9y agoYeah, for the second batch of jars take sales data and do A/B testing with a new round of designs!
- maerF0x0 9y agoLots of detractor comments. This kind of thing gets me very excited for the future of unique products. I bought a pair of Camo shorts the other day and wondered if every pair was identical, or if they were "random". Unique products can present some fun new challenges for online retail where the customer may want to buy a specific item. Not just a jar of Nutella, but "that" jar of nutella. Maybe they'll even bid on them, because "pink stripes are my favorite" or whatever may be the value proposition. To me this looks like a world of fun, not a chance to complain about it being the wrong tweak.
- dghughes 9y agoThis guy had a similar thought https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/3o2a2y/since_i_was_removed_from_rmildlyinteresting_ill/ https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/3o2a2y/since_i_was_re...
- amelius 9y agoI only hope the algorithm knows how to not output "wrong" shapes, such as a swastika.
- jwildeboer 9y agoMisleading title. It was about the label, not the jar.
- Quequau 9y agoGiven how I keep seeing ever larger Nutella containers I half expect them to begin selling it in 30 litre barrels.
- mwexler 9y agoSo, they randomized the creative and made "unique versions". Whee. A real win would be "Nutella 'hires' algo to optimize design aspects to both increase sales and improve label perception both emotionally and rationally". Aka, an optimization. For example, their current label is very busy with poor use of whitespace; what if they experimented with a variety of placements, size, and overall design of various elements, with algo driven optimization and letting the "best" compete for sales and user feedback... As long as they don't change the flavor, of course. Love that Nutella.
- JumpCrisscross 9y agoThe label appears to have increased sales. That's a real win.
- jwdunne 9y agoThey put an awful lot of emphasis on "algorithm" like it's like pulling the sword from the stone. I saw this in the social network too, where Zuckerberg demands "that algorithm" from Saverin and he proceeds to chalk it up on the window like that's how we communicate algorithms. Makes me cringe a little bit!
- satsuma 9y agoIt wasn't even an algorithm either, it was the basic Elo formula. I do love that movie but it falls to a lot of the Hollywood Hacking stereotypes.