
Nutella 'Hired' an Algorithm to Design New Jars. And It Was a Sell-Out Success - ALee
https://www.inc.com/betsy-mikel/can-robots-do-the-job-of-designers-nutella-gives-it-a-whirl.html
======
moftz
I 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
> 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
Shoving a chop stick into the cap can "fix" this for you.

~~~
deelowe
Perfect.

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jordanrobinson
A 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.

~~~
_rpd
The "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-
collec...](http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/extraordinary-collection-
coke-israel-creates-2-million-unique-diet-coke-bottles)

~~~
ranieuwe
More 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
> 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
> "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?

~~~
wccrawford
I feel pretty confident in saying that the average person has no clue what an
algorithm is. It's just a fancy word for something they don't understand.

They might have some idea about it being a process you follow to get a result,
but they would just say, "I don't know" rather than trying to verbalize that
idea.

~~~
vlasev
I think the average person knows algorithms by their close relative - the
"recipe"

~~~
kwhitefoot
Most recipes are not algorithms.

From OED:

    
    
        ... set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations ...
    

[https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/algorithm](https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/algorithm)

For me one of the key features of an algorithm is that it contains decisions.
Most recipes are simply step by step instructions without any branching or
looping.

~~~
compiler-guy
"Add <spice> to taste."

"Bake for 40-45 minutes."

"If dough is too sticky, add flour."

Many recipes contain decisions.

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mwexler
So, 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
The label appears to have increased sales. That's a real win.

~~~
jldugger
Some people complain the novelty effect biases all A/B testing results against
the status quo. This one weird trick flips bias on its head!

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nlawalker
New _labels_.

Here I was hoping that they had finally made a jar you could actually get all
the product out of.

~~~
elliottcarlson
That's how you get horrible one-off utensils like
[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1508505428/spoonani](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1508505428/spoonani)

~~~
mohn
I think I see the problem: they didn't make a left handed model as well. Tut-
tut.

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jwildeboer
Misleading title. It was about the label, not the jar.

------
agotterer
This 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-
vodk...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/13/absolut-unique-vodka-
bottles_n_1882025.html)

------
unabst
This 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.

------
jwdunne
They 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
It 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.

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maxwellito
They should focus more on the UX. I never been able to remove seal correctly.

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Quequau
Given how I keep seeing ever larger Nutella containers I half expect them to
begin selling it in 30 litre barrels.

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SamBam
This 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
It's even worse than that. "The "algorithm" is called HP Mosaic and is
included free in HP SmartStream Designer for HP printers."

------
maerF0x0
Lots 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
This guy had a similar thought
[https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/3o2a2y/since_i_was_re...](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/3o2a2y/since_i_was_removed_from_rmildlyinteresting_ill/)

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lowglow
I think the biggest oversight is the actual feedback portion of sales to train
the model on which features sold the best.

~~~
52-6F-62
I 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
They 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
I 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
Yeah, for the second batch of jars take sales data and do A/B testing with a
new round of designs!

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amelius
I only hope the algorithm knows how to not output "wrong" shapes, such as a
swastika.

