‘We’re ditching human panels’: Paper Moose launches AI testing tool

Indie creative agency Paper Moose has unveiled a new AI tool that pre-tests creative concepts, avoids human focus groups and “champions good marketing science”.

Described as a “full-blown competitor” to System1, Moose Review is designed to remove the subjectivity from typical testing tools.

The tool is the first flagship product to be launched under Paper Moose’s Innovation Lab. Described as a “first of its kind” hybrid tool that uses AI and human data to pre-test creative concepts.

(L-R): Joshua Flowers, Nick Hunter

Moose Review had been in development for over a year, according to Nick Hunter, co-founder and CEO of the agency.

He said it began as a way to focus on marketing science and the understanding of what drives effectiveness, and eventually grew into a “full-blown competitor” of other advertising testing organisations like System1.

“Quite often, when you’re doing a tissue session with three high-level ideas, it’s difficult to communicate your feedback … So that’s how it started, and now we’ve built it in all of this synthetic component and machine learning, which makes it something entirely different,” he told Mumbrella.

Hunter said Moose Review has elements “similar” to System1 in terms of the research that they also based their testing on, which are combined with inspiration from Byron Sharp’s laws of marketing and other effectiveness data to provide a broad set of views and opinions that might otherwise be overlooked.

One of key differentiators of Moose Review however, according to Hunter, is the synthetic panels. He claims this will help achieve what used to require tens of thousands of dollars and weeks of time in minutes at a fraction of the cost.

“We’re essentially ditching the human panels. Focus groups are so flawed, the testing system is broken and flawed, so what we’re replacing it with is something that is rapid, more effective, and more reliable,” he told Mumbrella.

Moose Review

He claims human panels are flawed for a few reasons, the main being that a person could say they like an ad, but it doesn’t mean they will go out in six months time and subconsciously buy a product because of the ad.

“We just don’t understand how we’re being manipulated,” he said. “So asking someone ‘what do you feel’ about an ad is intrinsically flawed.”

He said he — and many other creatives — often hate testing, hate traditional focus groups, and he hopes Moose Review becomes something creatives love.

“I’ve had so many great ideas killed by focus groups,” he said. “And this is a tool that genuinely champions good marketing science and good ideas.”

The other key difference is that Moose Review can be used throughout the creative process, not just before a campaign goes live, which “is too late”, according to Hunter.

“What client in the Australian market has money to reshoot something, there’s very few. So this is a sustainability thing too, making sure we’re getting it right from the start.”

Leading the Innovation Lab is co-founder Joshua Flowers, who steps into the role of invention chief. With his new remit, Flowers will be responsible for innovation, AI integration, and next-gen creative services across the agency.

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