The existing Foresight System, initially set up in 2021, needed to be expanded and refined to better capture emerging trends and cultural shifts in the evolving consumer landscape. In 2024, they needed our help to refresh the system by improving data quality, expanding trend tracking, and integrating a statistically robust approach to identifying new trends and insights.
For this, and all further projects, the refresh meant we could expand keyword coverage and discover new topics and expressions to strengthen strategic foresight applications across Diageo’s global markets.
So, when it came to what Diageo were looking for, there were a few key challenges in their way:
- Tracking emerging macro and micro-trends from massive digital conversations.
- Identifying new “Ways In” for brand innovation and optimising product launches, activations, and cultural campaigns.
- Upgrading the Foresight System into a proactive, AI-powered trend engine, making it a real-time, strategic planning tool.
Finding the right approach
As with all challenges, you need a plan. So, we implemented a structured, multi-phased approach to enhance trend tracking by expanding keyword queries, identifying net-new conversations, and integrating them into the existing system for long-term tracking. These enhancements ensured Diageo’s Foresight System remained cutting-edge, predictive, and capable of informing brand strategy in real time.
- Enhancing the Foresight System: We expanded keyword coverage across the Future Drivers, aggregating two years of data to understand conversation shifts and identify new trends. This also included testing and refining keyword queries, filtering noise, and optimising data structure for quality.
- Identifying Consumer Behavior Patterns: Using Sprinklr for social listening and BertTopicR, we uncovered net-new trends incorporated into the Foresight framework for continuous evolution.
Delivering a Scalable, Actionable Foresight Framework: To ensure the Foresight System remained dynamic and future-proof, we developed a scalable foresight dashboard, providing continuous tracking and real-time analysis. This included backfilling all queries, enhancing UX, and integrating AI-driven topic tagging to improve insights and usability.
What did we discover?
- Within Expanding Reality, AI-enabled relationships saw an 87.1% YoY growth, with increased conversations about AI-driven personalisation and digital companionship, highlighting the growing consumer comfort with AI-powered brand interactions. This shift has been taken forward in the Distilled Report, where Diageo explores AI-powered personalisation tools, such as flavour profiling through “What’s Your Cocktail?”, to create tailored brand experiences and enhance consumer engagement.
- Conscious Wellbeing continues to reshape social drinking occasions, with a 79% growth in Decelerated Occasions, reflecting an increasing preference for low-intensity, wellness-focused socializing. The rise of Zebra Striping, where consumers alternate between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, signals a broader shift toward mindful drinking and balanced consumption. The Distilled Report integrates this by positioning moderation as a key strategic focus, guiding Diageo’s product innovation and marketing to align with evolving drinking behaviors .
- Consumer engagement in Alternative Social Spaces surged by 42%, showcasing a shift from traditional nightlife and venues to immersive, digital, and hybrid experiences. Diageo is exploring brand activations in new social environments, such as gaming lounges, wellness retreats, and mixed-reality spaces, ensuring relevance in non-traditional, high-growth social settings.
