Q: Your media is your product (10:22)

Thank you, Jim.

So how do we go beyond A/B testing? Because while it tells us what works better, it doesn’t tell us why.

That’s where experiential testing comes in. It helps us understand the “why behind the what.”

We set up in-context testing environments and create small experiments to watch real behaviors unfold.

Take this example we’re showing on screen. The concept is: your package is your product. Whether it’s your catalog, your mailer or your display ad, the way it looks directly represents your brand.

We ran a simple test with cereal shoppers. First, we asked participants to find their favorite cereal on the shelf. Pretty straightforward — they could do it easily based on the packaging.

Then we ran the exact same test, but this time we stripped away the packaging. We put the cereal in plain bags labeled only with the name — and asked them to shop again.

What we found was clear: shoppers weren’t looking for flakes — they were looking for boxes. The packaging is the product.

With tools like eye tracking and heat mapping, we could actually see how people processed the shelves, what grabbed their attention and how their decision-making changed.

This is the kind of insight we’re after: What really drives behavior?

And like Jim mentioned, one of the most common objections we hear when we talk about this kind of testing is, “I’d love to do this — I just don’t have time.”

But if pre-market testing gets you to your goal six times faster, the time argument starts to fall apart. You could be generating incremental revenue gains right now instead of waiting a year and a half for A/B testing to deliver a breakthrough.