Beyond The Brief: How Amazon Ads and Mars Wrigley Used AI to Reward Everyday Wins

Chris Wilson, Head of Amazon Ads’ Brand Innovation Lab, Australia, Middle East and North Africa, led the team who delivered Mars Wrigley’s first-of-its-kind campaign, “For You Who Did That Thing That You Did”, which leveraged the power of Amazon’s generative AI technology to recognise and reward Australians for their everyday achievements. This campaign was created working with Mars Wrigley, Amazon, and EssenceMediacom.

A custom-built AI solution integrated within Amazon.com.au and powered by Amazon Bedrock, AWS’s fully managed generative AI service, was trained to assess everyday victories shared by Amazon customers and recognise small but significant wins with a free MARS Bar included in their next Amazon.com.au delivery.

In this edition of Beyond the Brief, Wilson reflects on planning and delivering the campaign that was implemented across Amazon touchpoints to unlock meaningful connections with relevant audiences. The campaign also saw impressive lifts in brand awareness, sales and ad recall, extending the MARS Bar brand platform with a unique experience for Amazon Australia customers.

As head of Amazon’s Brand Innovation Lab in Australia, what was the initial creative spark behind this campaign?

Amazon Ads’ Brand Innovation Lab is a global team of strategists, creatives, and technologists who work with brands to solve their challenges with bespoke solutions that combine creativity and cutting-edge technology. With Mars Wrigley, we recognised an opportunity to transform their “For You Who Did That Thing You Did” platform into something that delivered personalised connections at scale. We started by exploring how Amazon’s trillions of first-party shopping, browsing, and streaming signals could help the brand connect with relevant audiences in authentic ways.

We leveraged these signals to arrive at the insight that Mars Wrigley’s core audiences do a whole lot of “things” on Amazon Australia, for example parents catching on the latest Prime Video original series after the kids went to bed or students ordering their textbooks for same day delivery.

We could then connect with customers as they achieved “things” all across Prime Video, Amazon.com.au homepage, customer emails, display ads, and even delivery packaging and show them how to get a free MARS Bar!

This campaign effectively aligned Amazon’s technological capabilities with Mars Wrigley’s brand philosophy. How does your Innovation Lab approach these brand collaborations to find that sweet spot (no pun intended) between technology and brand storytelling?

It all starts with true customer understanding. Every brand has specific objectives, and our mission is to dive deep to understand its unique needs and opportunities. We then create bespoke solutions that combine elements of Amazon’s vast canvas to help them engage the right customer at the right time, with the right message.

Rather than leading with technology for technology’s sake, we focused on how Amazon Bedrock could bring Mars Wrigley’s brand storytelling to life across our channels. The AI became the enabler of human connections, allowing the brand to recognise more than 30,000 customer achievements from “rearranging the spice cabinet by colour and flavour” to celebrating “first gym class since having a baby!” And the results speak for themselves: a 4.8% increase in ad recall, a boost in brand awareness to 92%, and a 67% increase in overall Mars Wrigley sales on Amazon during the campaign period.

AI has become the ultimate buzzword, but as a creative team, what do you see as the value of technology in shaping innovative ideas like this one?

Technology is a tool that supports the brands we work with to push the boundaries of creativity and customer experience innovation. Mars Wrigley’s willingness to embrace emerging technologies exemplifies the kind of forward-thinking innovation our Brand Innovation Lab was designed to foster – an environment where marketers can take calculated risks, explore new storytelling approaches, and ultimately forge deeper connections with their audiences. What made this campaign special was how thoughtfully the brand applied audience signals and Amazon Bedrock’s generative AI capabilities to evolve what a great customer experience can look like – in this case, celebrating the everyday moments that matter to our shared customers. By integrating this technology across multiple touchpoints and leveraging Amazon’s trillions of first-party shopping, browsing, and streaming signals that help brands connect to their relevant audiences, we created a seamless, personalised experience that resonated deeply with consumers and established authentic connections for the brand.

Given the strong results across both brand metrics and sales performance, what key learnings has the Brand Innovation Lab taken away that might influence how you approach future brand collaborations in the AI personalisation space?

The best part of working within Amazon’s Brand Innovation Lab is that no two briefs are ever the same. Every brand we work with has specific objectives and there’s no “one size fits all” strategy to meet them. It’s our team’s mission to dive deep with our customers to understand their unique needs and opportunities, and find the bespoke, custom-fit solution combining elements of Amazon’s vast canvas to help them delight their customers or solve a problem for them. I think this campaign saw us walk the walk on that for sure.

You’ve managed to achieve measurable brand lift of 2% for an already well-established brand like Mars Wrigley. What elements of this full-funnel approach do you believe contributed most significantly to moving the needle on awareness?

Last July we introduced Prime Video advertising locally, which created the opportunity for brands of all sectors and sizes to reach customers at scale through Prime Video’s incredible content. With an average monthly ad-supported reach of more than 5 million customers in Australia, Prime Video advertising provides an unparalleled experience for brands with a differentiated combination of reach, scale, trillions of first-party signals, and innovative adtech. Prime Video is a creative playground where we can create bespoke video ads to speak to customers in a way that resonates and help deliver the awareness lift brands are looking for.

Chris, have you done a “Thing” today?

This campaign made me realise that we all do “things” everyday that deserve a reward. Today I trained my needy dog, Harry, to stay behind at my desk if I ever have to pop out momentarily. He (and I) both did a great job. MARS Bar for an afternoon snack (for me, not Harry)!