Observed Signal · Aug 24, 2026 · Technical Release · Source: Modern Retail · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Retail Media Market: Hershey Uses AI to Optimize S'mores Season Sales
The Hershey Company has begun using proprietary in-house AI tools — including computer vision and augmented reality — to identify optimal in-store placements for s'mores displays and measure performance. Hershey also deployed a real-time AI-driven marketing-mix model that standardizes social, search and streaming data to speed decisions about advertising spend. The AR/computer-vision platform has been used in several thousand stores and helped the company share merchandising performance with retailers; Hershey reported double-digit year-over-year growth in s'mores-related chocolate sales and estimates the s'mores occasion generates $200M–$250M during peak season. Hershey also reported about a 20% year-over-year increase in retail media return on ad spend using the AI model.
Brand-level adoption of computer vision/AR merchandising and real-time AI marketing-mix modeling demonstrates practical, measurable retail media and in-store optimization gains (e.g., ROAS uplift), indicating meaningful but not industry-shifting advancement.
Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- The Hershey Company started using a proprietary in-house AI tool this year that uses computer vision and augmented reality to identify and evaluate in-store s'mores display placements.
- Hershey implemented a real-time AI-driven marketing-mix model that pulls and standardizes data from social, search and streaming platforms to speed advertising decisions.
- Hershey estimates s'mores occasions generate $200 million to $250 million in sales during peak season (roughly Easter through Labor Day).
- The AR/computer-vision display-placement platform has been used in several thousand stores and allowed Hershey to share display performance with retailers.
- Hershey found roughly a 20% year-over-year increase in its retail media return on ad spend and reported pallet trains outperformed end caps by 101% during s'mores season.
Connected Companies & Entities
3 Entities mappedKantar
Market research and media measurement provider for enterprise marketers.
““Featuring occasion-based use-cases can tap into emotional needs that unlock the value of your products beyond the pack,” said Michael Hill,...”
Circana
Retail, consumer and media measurement platform for enterprises.
“Circana merchandising data shows that sales of marshmallows and graham crackers increase most around major summer holidays such as Memorial ...”
The Hershey Company
US confectionery and snacking brand owner and manufacturer.
“The Hershey Company has started using new AI tools to maximize sales of s’mores ingredients in stores —including its own chocolates, as well...”
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