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Snack maker Mondelez is using a new generative AI tool to cut costs for the production of marketing content by 30% to 50%, a senior executive told Reuters. The packaged food manufacturer began developing the tool last year with IT firm Accenture and expects that it will be capable of making short TV ads that would be ready to air as soon as next year’s holiday season, and potentially for the 2027 Super Bowl, said Jon Halvorson, Mondelezs global senior vice president of consumer experience. The Cadbury chocolate producer has invested more than $40 million in the tool, Halvorson said, adding that savings would grow if the tool is able to make more elaborate videos. Faced with tariffs and shrinking shopper budgets, Mondelez, like other consumer goods companies, is looking to adopt AI to slash fees paid to advertising agencies, and speed up how long it takes to develop and sell new products. Rivals such as macaroni-and-cheese maker Kraft Heinz and Coca-Cola have also been trying out AI for ads. Coke in 2024 ran AI-created holiday ads, though the computer-created people in them were ridiculed by some consumers for lacking real emotion. Mondelez is not yet putting human likenesses in its AI-created content. It is using content generated by the new tool on social media for its Chips Ahoy cookies in the U.S. and Milka chocolate in Germany. An eight-second Milka video shows waves of chocolate rippling over a wafer, along with different backgrounds depending on which consumer Mondelez is targeting. The cost to do animations “is in the hundreds of thousands,” Halvorson said. “This type of set-up is orders of magnitude smaller.” In the U.S., Oreo will use the tool for product pages on Amazon and Walmart in November. Mondelez plans to use the tool in the coming months for Lacta chocolate and Oreo in Brazil, and Cadbury in the UK, Halvorson said. Tina Vaswani, vice president of digital enablement and data for the company, said humans will always check what the tool produces to avoid any mishaps. Mondelez has rules prohibiting highlighting unhealthy eating habits, vaping, over-consumption, emotionally manipulative language and the use of offensive stereotypes, according to a document shared by the Chicago-based company. Jessica DiNapoli, Reuters
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E-Commerce
Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Since mortgage rates spiked in 2022, many large homebuilders have tried to make homes more affordable by shrinking them, stripping them down, or pushing buyers farther out. Allan Merrill, CEO of Atlanta-based Beazer Homesa publicly traded builder with a $710 million market capitalization and the 23rd-largest single-family homebuilder last yearbelieves thats the wrong approach. The way I think about it is, I dont want to sell you a cheaper home, Merrill told ResiClub last week. I want to sell you a home that costs you less every month to live inand one that will still hold its value five or ten years from now. Beazers plan focuses on three key areas: lowering the cost to power, insure, and finance a home. If you can take $150 or $200 a month out of your operating cost [monthly payment], thats real affordability, Merrill said. Were not trying to sell you less housewere trying to sell you a better, more efficient one. Allan Merrill [Photo: Beazer Homes] Affordability lever #1: Cutting energy bills through design, not gimmicks The centerpiece of Beazers affordability push is its energy efficiency standard. Every Beazer home is built to the Energy Rated Valuea benchmark that exceeds building codes and emphasizes insulation, air filtration, and low humidity levels. We pride ourselves on building beyond [local] energy codes so you are buying a home from the future today, Merrill says. You dont want to buy a home thats functionally obsolete the day you close. Beazer sees this as more than a sustainability moveits a financial one. Lower energy bills directly reduce a homeowners monthly cost of living, which Merrill calls material savings. Its $100 a month, $200 a month on the margin, he says. The present value of that is in the thousands of dollars, but over the life of the loan could be over $30,000 [in savings]. Beazer says its homes are designed to feel tangibly different: quieter, better insulated, and healthier. It feels different in here, Merrill says. It sounds different. It smells different. A home with double-filtered fresh air and low humidity literally feels different. Merrill says this is all underscored in Beazers new campaign, “Enjoy the Great Indoors.” Affordability lever #2: Lowering insurance costs through an in-house agency The second affordability lever comes not from the home itself, but from the insurance that protects it. Beazer has its own insurance agencyand it gives away the profits. Beazer wanted to have an agency to organize the proposals from the different firms, Merrill explains, adding: But that entity distributes its profits to our charitable foundationand thats actually what we do with title insurance as well. The Beazer insurance agency operates in-house, handling the paperwork and logistics of homeowners and title insurance while keeping buyers costs competitive. Because it isnt structured to make money for Beazer, it can pass along more savings to the buyer. Its a small but symbolic move in a business where hidden transaction fees are common. We dont need to make money on every piece of the home purchase, he says. Were trying to make homeownership more attainable. Affordability lever #3: Reducing mortgage costs with an in-house competition platform The third pillar of Beazers affordability strategy is the companys in-house mortgage platform, which hosts a marketplace of competing lenders. In mortgage, there are literally no economics to us, Merrill says. We are not lenders, we are not brokers, we are in no way in the mortgage business. We have a platform where the banks can compete effectively, directly for the buyers. Unlike some other builders, Beazer doesnt have a captive finance arm that earns interest or fees, he says. Instead, the company uses its internal program to connect buyers directly to multiple banksand takes no profit from the transaction. That competition, Merrill says, often drives rates below what buyers would find on their own. Today, youll see permanent buydowns in the 4.99% range [in many markets], down from the low sixes, he explains. Every 25 basis points costs about a pointbut were not adding a margin on top of that. By building both the insurance and mortgage processes in-housebut running them as service models, not profit centersBeazer is says its able to lower monthly payments for its homebuyers. Building forward, not backward What some other buildersthose going smaller or cutting back on qualityare doing, Merrill argues, would be like Apple bringing back the iPhone 13 or 14 instead of rolling out the iPhone 18. I dont think thats a great long-term strategy, he says. Merrill said the companys approach differs from many of its publicly traded peers, which have leaned on aggressive incentives or cheaper design packages to maintain volume in a high-rate environment. In an attempt to reduce cost, what we see a lot in the industry is were effectively going backward. Beazer, instead, is investing to make each home iteration better than the lasteven as affordability pressures mount. We have continued to innovate, Merrill said. I want to deliver the version [iPhone] 19 and version 20, and have their feature be your low cost of operation. Instead of saying, Good news, you can buy something that was available five years ago. Beazer Homes: Policymakers could help out if they lowered building fees In Merrills view, the housing affordability strain isnt just about interest ratesits about decades o underinvestment in infrastructure and an overreliance on permit and impact fees that push costs onto new homebuyers. In Northern California, its $140,000 [spent by us] before we even break groundjust in [government] fees, Merrill said. Across the country, its $60,000 or $70,000. That number used to be under $10,000 [per home]. He compares having new builds shoulder a disproportionate share of government revenue through impact and permit fees to the way the U.S. runs budget deficits: Weve been living on credit, but instead of running up a big deficit, weve just shifted it to the next generation of homebuyers, he said. Then we complain about why they cant buy homes. Beazer Homes CEO Allan Merrill is among the speakers at ResiDay 2025. ResiClub is hosting the one-day conference on Friday, November 7, in New York City.
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E-Commerce
Toy retail brand Toys “R” Us will open new flagship stores and seasonal holiday shops just in time for the holidays. The initiative is in partnership with specialty retailer Go Retail Group, the company said. The locations will feature products from popular brands such as Barbie, Hot Wheels, Nerf, Lego, and Paw Patrol. Some of the new stores have already opened their doors. According to the company, additional stores will open throughout the season. Heres where you can shop Consumers will be able to do their holiday shopping at the following new Toys “R” Us locations: Flagship stores: Chicago Premium Outlets Aurora, IL Camarillo Premium Outlets Camarillo, CA Arundel Mills Hanover, MD Jordan Creek Moines, IA Westroads Mall Omaha, NE Denver Premium Outlets Thornton, CO Tanger Outlets Deer Park Deer Park, NY Towne East Square Wichita, KS The Chicago Premium Outlets flagship store is already open. Seasonal holiday shops: The following seasonal shops are already open: Great Lakes Crossing Auburn Hills, MI Grapevine Mills Grapevine, TX Lakeside Shopping Center Metairie, LA Tanger Outlets Nashville, TN Crabtree Valley Mall Raleigh, NC The Mall in Columbia Columbia, MD South Plains Mall Lubbock, TX Westfield Southcenter Tukwila, WA Station Park Farmington, UT The following seasonal shops will open soon: Deptford Mall Deptford, NJ Eastland Mall Evansville, IN Mall of New Hampshire Manchester, NH Bay Street Emeryville, CA Twelve Oaks Mall Novi, MI Park Meadows Lone Tree, CO North Star Mall San Antonio, TX Tanger Outlets Sevierville, TN King of Prussia Mall King of Prussia, PA Crocker Park Westlake, OH Walden Galleria Buffalo, NY The social media accounts for Toys R Us will have up-to-date store locations and hours. The locations are also searchable on the brand’s store locator page. “The rollout represents a new chapter for Toys ‘R’ Us, strengthening its place at the center of holiday shopping and redefining family retail experiences,” Gideon Schlessinger, CEO of Go Retail Group, said in a statement. “With new stores nationwide, customers of all ages are invited to discover the season’s hottest toys and rediscover what it means to be a Toys ‘R’ Us kid.” Not your grandfather’s Toys “R” Us This isnt the first time that the Toys R Us brand has made a comeback. The original company, a retail mainstay for decades, sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2017. It had struggled with debt for years in the wake of a private equity buyout deal in 2005. The toy retailer closed roughly 800 stores in 2018. In October 2018, Tru Kids Brands bought the Toys R Us brands and intellectual property. And the following year, the company opened several smaller stores during the holiday season. Brand acquisition company WHP Global snatched up a controlling stake in Tru Kids in 2021. This acquisition led the toy retailer to partner with Macy’s. The department store began promoting Toys “R” Us shops in its department stores and selling its products online. WHP Global first partnered with Go Retail Group in 2023, at the time announcing plans to roll out Toys “R” Us stores nationwide.
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E-Commerce
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