AI Integration and the Future of Marketing Insights with Alex Hunt, CEO of Behaviorally

In this CEO Series interview, Lenny Murphy and Alex Hunt, the CEO of behaviorally, delve into the profound impact of AI, including generative AI, on marketing insights. Hunt highlights Behaviorally's pioneering role in understanding consumer behavior, emphasizing the integration of AI to enhance predictive analysis of packaging effectiveness and optimize digital commerce strategies. This discussion not only covers insights dissemination but also touches on workforce evolution and future outlooks, showcasing behaviorally's innovative approach to marketing strategy.

The dialogue between Murphy and Hunt offers valuable perspectives on the intersection of artificial intelligence and marketing. Behaviorally, known for its expertise in packaging solutions, leverages artificial intelligence to enrich its product lineup by consolidating data sources, predicting packaging performance, and enhancing e-commerce forecasts. Through strategic integration of AI technology, behaviorally democratizes insights for clients, particularly benefitting smaller brands within larger corporations. Moreover, the company's digital transformation has reshaped its workforce dynamics, prioritizing roles like data scientists and developers to maximize the value of their database with advanced AI marketing tools. Looking ahead, Hunt foresees significant advancements in predictability and a rising demand for complementary services post-integration of their behavioral dataset with artificial intelligence capabilities. Behaviorally's commitment to product innovation and talent development underscores their drive to stay competitive in the dynamic digital marketing landscape.

Transcript

Leonard Murphy: Hello everybody. It's Lenny Murphy with the CEO series. And today we are relaunching the CEO series with inaugural guest, actually an old friend for anybody who's paid attention, Alex Hunt CEO of behaviorally. Alex, welcome.

Alexander Hunt: Thanks Lenny, and I'm delighted to be here and even more delighted to be the guinea pig and inaugural guest on it. 

Leonard Murphy: We've had a lot of first together over the years. So we'll just add to the list. For people who don't know, why don't you let the audience know a little bit about you, a little bit about behaviorally, and then we're getting into our rapid fire Q&A.

Alexander Hunt: Absolutely. So I'm the CEO of behaviorally. I've been with the business five and a half years. Behaviorally for those of you who may know we were formerly PRS. We rebranded as behaviorally in 2021. We are really the leader in the packaging space and we've really support clients at that point of transaction. So be it on the physical shelf of the digital shelf, clients really come to us to help them understand why consumers are making the choices that they do at that most important moment in marketing.

Leonard Murphy: I think you've been a little modest actually, but we'll get to some of the modesty in the questions. I think because you do that's good summation, but I think you do a lot of other cool stuff. So there's a great pitch.

Alexander Hunt: You said to keep it tight. So keeping it tight.

Leonard Murphy: So yeah. All right, let's jump in. So first question how have your offerings changed since the advent of AI? How's that affected behaviorally's journey and innovation?

Alexander Hunt: The hot topic that everybody is talking about and I guess the summary bit for us is what we're not really talking about AI, we're using it. So we're using it in our day to gain operating efficiencies and there's no question about that. It's got a ton to offer but I think more importantly we're using it to improve our solutions. So more than 80% behaviorally product suite is tech enabled and leverages AI. To give two examples which really important. We've used AI to integrate our database with sales data and consumers survey data that's created a much better predictor f packaging effectiveness. So we can pinpoint the impact of the packaging change for our clients either in the positive or often in the negative. It's also allowed us to play the digital shelf AI has enable us to scale up our predictions of visual asset impact at a speed and scale that is demanded by digital commerce and frankly traditional insights methodologies just can't do. So, that's just two ways that I think AI has really enhanced the product stack that we have and integrated it and that's over and above the normal or the typical productivity enhancements that it's offered our team members.

Leonard Murphy: And quantastic lattice product, right? Is that what you're referring to?

Alexander Hunt: Gladys is the qualitative and the qualitative it's proved ai's proven to integrate you name the way that I'm describing. But also I think from a data standpoint just extrapolate meaning from data much more quickly and productively.

Leonard Murphy: Yeah, I very cool. So we're seeing what I termed the democratization of insights across client organizations and changing profiles of customers. Since you work in such a specific area, are you seeing things coming outside of the insights organization and going more towards brand product, other groups?

Alexander Hunt: Yeah, I mean the context for those who don't know behaviorally, being the leader in the packaging space as you would imagine we work with pretty much every leading CPG manufacturer and manufacturers in different verticals as well. So be it health and well-being, technology, retail that clear focus for us and we're very privileged to really work with those big brands. We haven't seen the democratization for our services spread outside those world-leading brands, but I will say what we have seen is but our products and services are much more accessible to smaller brands within those big clients. So the cost of getting a prediction of what the impact of the packaging changes going to be has decreased and therefore smaller brands within those big large corporations are much more easily able to access our services and the large brands are able to access them much more often through the packaging development journey. So whereas we might have done a final validation step at the end in the past now, we're touching back four five six times along that journey from screening early designs using pure AI using a combination of qualitative. once they've got some prototypes ready right the way through to full validation at the end

Leonard Murphy: All right, very cool. So that's how I think everything's going to play across the board sooner rather than later. So it's good to see that happening with you. What about new hiring skills is the profile of your employees changing as the companies evolving?

Alexander Hunt: Absolutely. So I mean for those who followed behaviorally or formally PRS as we were when I joined the business, we were really an analog business, right? We were designed to physically assess packaging for the physical retail shelf and we had a whole infrastructure behind that. Over the past five years, we've completely digitized our business. So in 2023 about all the book was Tech enabled today so far in 2024, it's a hundred percent. So we're digital business and so we've really invested the savings from our analog infrastructure back into data and our database which we think is a real differentiator for behaviorally. So we've built a team that have scientists we built the team of developers. These are folks that don't really come with an insights background, but what they are tasked with is really getting the data infrastructure correct and unlocking the value of our database once it's combined with technology and AI to really make better predictions and that's where we've invested very very heavily over the last three four five years. During my tenure with the business.

Leonard Murphy: So what's your forecast look like the next two years, not the numbers, but you think about looking at your crystal ball for how behaviorally and the industry as a whole will evolve. What does that look like for you?

Alexander Hunt: I'm an enthusiast as Lenny and I have been forever. I think we're at the beginning of a wave of change. I tend to look at it that way. In my career, at least I've seen two changes, right? I began when data collection was transitioning from traditional impersonal or catty to online and saw the advances that brought. I spent a good decade pioneering behavioral sciences and seeing the impact of that on the quality of our methodologies. I think AI is going to bring another way and I'm really effused by where behaviorally sits because we've done the hard work of transitioning from analog to digital. We've also done the hard work of operationalizing behavioral science, right? So the behavioral database we built is operationalized and I think I'm unlocking the potential of that with AI is going to just stimulate growth. So where do we see that growth? we see a massive growth in productivity of what we do. So we're going to be able to make predictions of marketing effectiveness in our case impact packaging quicker, at a much greater scale, better, and frankly in a way that's relevant the digital commerce. So predictions will be much more frequent possibly lower cost but much more frequent and what we'll also see is a boom in services that are adjacent to marketing effectiveness predictions. So for example, we are expecting a huge leap in the world seeing a huge leap in our qualitative. So a lot of clients are working with us for that core prediction and what that packaging changes going to do, but then also qualitative diagnostics to supplement that. We'll see an increase in the demand for our judgment and our expertise. So if you take our pack AI solution as an example, we provide a quantitative prediction of the consumers response to packaging almost instantly, but the overlay from our expert team is incredibly valuable and we're seeing that increase. So, I think there's a lot of growth, growth, growth and it'll be underpinned by an exponential increase in the amount of prediction that we're able to do and those adjacent services to that.

Leonard Murphy: From your lips to God's ears, right? Yeah, But that's my read as well in general. So great to hear that you're seeing that manifest in the business. Alright, final question. Maybe a little more personal. What are you paying attention to is a CEO to give you an edge?

Alexander Hunt: Yeah, all the stuff one would expect me to say. I look at customers, of course. We look at our products consistently and that is a changing space. I had a really senior clients say to me last year. We don't expect to use the same methodology for more than 12 months ever again, and I think that the world is changing so quickly and our products have to evolve as quickly. But for me, and it's probably the one thing that's as true today as it was five years ago, talent, the skills and capability at the stock that we have at behaviorally has to continue to evolve in line with the business and finding talent is always a very challenging thing for any CEO. It's probably the most important thing and what I spent a lot of time thinking about.

Leonard Murphy: That is it guinea pig. we said we're gonna stick it up 10 minutes. I think we just did that. Great stuff, great to catch up her audience certainly encourage you to check out behaviorally and where can people reach you Alex.

Alexander Hunt: Yeah, of course Alexander84 on X, can reach me on LinkedIn or through behaviorally.com.

Leonard Murphy: All right, that's it. Thanks. Talk soon.

Alexander Hunt: Talk soon.