Insights

Books, quizzes and streaming: Thinking outside the blog when it comes to content marketing

info@econsultancy.com (James Smart) — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 16:40:03 GMT

Content innovation helps brands stand out. Take the UK online bank Monzo, which used a campaign built on print to demystify personal finance. Meanwhile, in Brazil, Budweiser used social media users’ dwindling attention spans as inspiration for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it video campaign, while UN Live launched a global campaign that plugged into the existing music streaming ecosystem – and gave nature equal billing to David Bowie.

Each of these three examples took a risk with their content marketing while staying true to their brand identity.

Monzo moves from screen to page

British online bank Monzo has expanded rapidly since its 2015 founding, but with more and more financial institutions also offering sleek apps and practical budgeting tools, it wanted to differentiate itself via a cultural moment.

Its research showed that 51% of British people feel they are not reaching their financial potential due to a lack of money knowledge. To turn personal finance from a bugbear into something consumers would queue up for, the brand decided to write a book about money. One that people might actually want to read.

The Monzo Book of Money was designed to feel human and engaging – echoing Monzo’s unstuffy, relatable branding. It focused not on the mechanics of money, but on the life it can enable.

The approachable guide, published with Penguin, was promoted via a physical pop-up in London’s Soho called the Book Nook. The pop-up featured 3500 personalized versions of the book. Each copy had a different cover, including The Book of Sleeping Well on the 29th of the Month, The Book of Not Being Tempted by Sales and The Book of Finally Extending the Kitchen.

By combining a plain-speaking, jargon-free approach with this playful personalisation, Monzo hoped to speak directly to individuals’ frustrations and ambitions around money. “It’s warm, practical and – crucially – shaped by conversations we’ve had with millions of customers,” shared Monzo CMO AJ Coyne.

The pop-up’s impact was amplified through retailers and social content, including a video series, Lessons from the Book of Money, fronted by creator Shu Lin. The series turns the book’s chapters’ into short-form money lessons.

The results:

nearly 1,500 visits to the pop-up (50% over forecast)
over 7 million views for Lin’s video series
the book became a bestseller within a week, selling its annual sales target in its first month
perceptions of Monzo as ‘knowledgeable’ in London rose from 3% to 31% – their highest level to date

In today’s digital noise, physical content stands out as tangible and trustworthy. With a personalized book and a Soho pop-up, Monzo transformed a dry topic into an experience consumers were willing to seek out. Crucially, while they took a big step – from an app-based business to the printed page – they remained in step with their brand values of being straightforward and relatable throughout.

Budweiser shows timing is everything

Budweiser’s ties with music goes back decades. In the seventies, rock stars were snapped with the iconic bottles and cans in hand, and since then widespread festival and venue sponsorship has cemented the link. The beer giant wanted to remind Brazilian music fans of the connection today, but feared that a social campaign of 15 or 30 second ads would be hamstrung by short attention spans on social.

Instead of fearing the fleeting engagement that leads users to skip ads – or feel frustrated when they’re forced to watch till the end – Budweiser chose to embrace it. Inspired by research that showed that fans could guess classic tunes within a second, the company created a series of one-second guess-the-song challenge ads with agency Africa Creative.

Songs from AC/DC, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, the Beatles and the Foo Fighters all featured on a campaign across social channels including TikTok. The challenge hit a sweet spot: the rush and validation that fans got from being able to guess a tune, and the nagging frustration if they could not quite place it.

The ad’s focus on tiny snippets had a cost benefit too, with Budweiser avoiding royalties on using the songs thanks to their short duration. The controversy that resulted after the campaign celebrated this loophole after its 2025 Cannes Lions win shows innovation can come with reputational risk.

The results:

68 million impressions and 125,000 user guesses in the first two weeks after launch
119% more views than the benchmark
near-total completion rates
music fans commented on the ads, but also shared them on their own social media to prove they could guess the songs

Instead of fighting user behaviour, consider leaning into it. Budweiser turned the fear the customers would skip or resent longer ads into the hook of its campaign. This micro-content innovation left viewers wanting more and played on the brand’s musical heritage.

The UN channels the greatest artist of all time

Environmental activism may be critical for our planet, but it can feel like a turn-off for some consumers, particularly where it focuses on the bleak impacts of climate change. Sounds Right, a collaboration between the Museum for the United Nations and streaming services including Spotify aimed to attract attention while funding climate preservation initiatives, creating new music and focusing attention on the biggest rock star of all – the Earth itself.

Working with agency AKQA as well as acoustic ecologists, environmental NGOs and indigenous representatives, the UN Live team launched an immersive, interactive website with the playful claim that ‘the greatest artist of all time has never been credited for her work. Until now.’

The campaign registered Nature as a verified artist across global streaming platforms. A series of tracks from artists including Brian Eno, David Bowie, Ellie Goulding, London Grammar and Aurora were remixed with natural sounds including waves, hyenas, wild pigs and the Borneo rainforest, and released as collaborations with Nature. Bespoke typefaces and colours derived from nature helped establish a visual identity to accompany the sounds.

https://videos.ctfassets.net/feazk3r7m969/5q5hHSCN5PCOkrkVqgwRbb/662ab558caf4844dcc046d0b698abccc/SR-CASE-web-1.mp4

The results included:

over 350 million streams across major platforms between 2024 and 2026
5k followers
Nature became a top 1% artist
major funding milestones including a $225,000 grant to conservation projects in Colombia’s Tropical Andes
extensive press coverage
more artists invited to collaborate with Nature in future

Content innovations can involve creating new work that stands alone, but they can also hinge on clever uses of an existing ecosystem. UN Live used streaming to make Nature’s songs into an effortless soundtrack.

There’s no one way to produce innovative content that works. A beer company leveraged music fans’ pride and intuition in a video-ad challenge, an online bank stepped into the analogue world and made a bestseller, and a climate campaign collaborated with pop stars and streaming giants. All three of these examples share one lesson, creativity is vital for content marketing that captures audiences attention.

Social Media Trends – Synthetic influencers, fan culture and TikTok GO

rose.keen@econsultancy.com (Rose Keen) — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 09:11:30 GMT

Econsultancy’s social trend round-up curates the latest trends, developments and case studies from across different platforms to act as a guide to what’s happening now in the world of social, and what brands should do about it.

Unilever make being a part of the conversation the goal

World Cup 2026 content is taking over feeds. With this year’s competition feeling like the first short-form video competition.

The World Cup is always big business for brands, but it can be a difficult line to walk – between being an authentic part of the buzz, or interrupting it. Case in point: the controversial hydration breaks which have been accused of being more about ad slots than electrolytes. This is perhaps why Unilever is betting big on creators to support cut-through around the cup.

Elfried Samba explores making the global feel personal

During the competition Unilever will host a 24/7 content hub called The Locker Room hosting content creators and football experts, creating an always-on content feed designed to make their personal care brands a part of the conversation.

“This activation reflects how we’re engaging with sport not just as sponsorship, but as a platform to build brand desire and cultural relevance to drive superior growth” explains Afke van de Klashorst, Unilever Personal Care’s Vice President of Integrated Brand Experience

This is the first big test of Unilever’s social-first pivot from September last year. By going social- and creator-first Unilever will be hoping to tap into fan culture and conversations online.

Klashorst adds “Our ambition is for our brands to show up in spaces where fandom lives and in ways that are authentic, native to social, and meaningful by bringing freshness and confidence to match-day moments that matter most for fans, players and spectators.”

Arguably however, the brand to have the standout organic reach moment of the competition so far is Sam Adams beer which enjoyed a viral moment in the sun and across mainstream media after Scotland fans reportedly drank the city of Boston dry.

Boston taps run dry

As they say, no Scotland no party… or at least no lager.

For brands, it is important to remember that the most successful activations around global events, be they sporting or otherwise, create value for the audience.

Working with creators, and giving them the creative freedom to tell your story in their own way that resonates with their audience, can move a brand from an unwelcome guest on a consumer’s scroll or watch, to instead being a part of the shared experience.

Synthetic influencers now pass the scroll test

From one of the greatest human spectacles to something decidedly more artificial. An investigation by the Guardian has found that AI-generated influencers are being used to promote products on social media.

Virtual influencers are not a new phenomena. Marketers will be familiar with names like Lil’Miquela – a project of musician and producer Trevor McFedries and Sara DeCou, who has been around since 2016.

What is different about this new generation of virtual influencers though is just how obvious the virtual part of their identity is, with these synthetic characters now more than able to pass the scroll test.

AI influencer is Mia Zelu went somewhat viral last year after ‘attending’ Wimbledon.

Also, unlike predecessors like Lil’Miquela and Lu do Magalu, that were often the artistic enterprise of an outside individual or agency, GenAI image and video capabilities have democratised these capabilities to the point that it is now possible for brands to create and manage their own stable of artificial influencers.

The appeal to brands is clear. A set of fully brand-safe influencers, entirely under their control with no risk of anyone scrolling back on their X feed and finding something offensive from their college days.

However, it remains to be seen what consumers’ appetite for this type of content is and whether they will reject it – and what that does to brand reputation.

UK lifestyle and fashion magazine Sheerluxe has recently come under fire after introducing an AI ‘editor’ character named Reem on Instagram.

Sheerluxe uses AI ‘editor’ Reem to host social media content

Following the backlash the brand had to release a statement clarifying “She is an AI-generated image only, and is not able to create content or articles. No jobs were compromised in any way as a result of her creation and we would never publish any content that hasn’t had human involvement.”

In all likelihood, how audiences react to synthetic influencer content will likely vary widely by brand, consumer type and where and when the content reaches them. AI influencers may prove most useful for the more mercantile elements of the social media mix for instance manning a live shopping stream or promoting a brand’s TikTok shop.

Given the potential for brand damage should consumers feel tricked, brands looking to experiment with synthetic influencers should be transparent about the artificial nature of the content and character.

Brands should also ensure there is robust measurement set up covering both the effectiveness of this content versus the human alternative, and social listening to understand customer sentiment.

Should AI influencers become more widely adopted this will likely be in addition to, rather than replacing their human counterparts. Human creators’ ability to nurture a community and tell stories in new and innovative ways ensures their ongoing importance in a brand’s marketing mix.

TikTok GO-es after the full travel funnel

Social commerce has always been about shortening the journey from inspiration to conversion.

In May, TikTok took that one step further with the launch of TikTok GO. GO allows people in the US to discover and book hotels, attractions and tours all within the app.

@tiktokgo_us
What does your audience see after they click your travel video? 👀 #tiktokgo #traveltiktok #traveltok #travel #tiktokcampaign

♬ original sound – TikTok GO 🇺🇸

Previous models of the customer journey from social inspiration to purchase would have looked something like: user sees something inspiring, they leave the app, search for the product, gather more information, compare before then converting. This journey has lots of opportunities to lose people along the way.

TikTok GO compresses that journey into a few taps, reducing frictions and making it more likely the consumer will convert in the moment. TikTok frame this expansion as doing for experiences what Shop has done for products.

“Every day on TikTok, millions of people discover where to eat, where to stay, and what to do next. TikTok GO connects that moment of inspiration directly to the businesses behind it, and that’s good for creators, good for local businesses, and good for communities.” explains Adam Presser, CEO of TikTok USDS Joint Venture

As Johannes Reck, Co-Founder & CEO, Get Your Guide describes “Whether it’s visiting the Vatican or checking out a cooking class in Tokyo, we’re collapsing the time between inspiration and action…. With TikTok GO, we’re at the center of that transformation, right at the moment of inspiration.”

Now available to US consumers, GO launched with partnerships including Booking.com, Expedia, Viator, GetYourGuide, Tiqets, and Trip.com. The trade-off for brands is the potential loss of a direct relationship with the consumer. With more of the journey happening on a third party platform that means less customer data for the brands themselves.

The social media landscape is constantly evolving. To continue to connect and build community requires brands to stay up to date with what is shifting across platforms, audiences and technology.

The social media landscape is constantly evolving. To continue to connect and build community requires brands to stay up to date with what is shifting across platforms, audiences and technology.

Join Econsultancy’s on 30th June, 1pm BST for our webinar ‘Social media beyond the ‘like” with Specsavers Head of Brand Communications Lisa Hale.

Secure your spot now.

Little wins, a fake heiress and a tea mob: Three creator partnerships that cut through

info@econsultancy.com (James Smart) — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 13:37:44 GMT

Content creators can offer brands authenticity and a direct connection with their target audience. However, audiences are increasingly savvy. If you’re offering them a boilerplate script, it won’t be effective – no matter who happens to be saying the words. Here, three campaigns show how brands can work with creators in a way that really connects.

Instead of playing it safe, USA Network took a risk by working with a controversial creator who fit their new show down to a duplicitous T. Rather than going global and big-budget, Coca-Cola gave local influencers the chance to mark relatable micro-moments of celebration. And instead of treating her followers like a passive audience, Ashley Alexander made her Matcha Mob part of the product development team. Together, these three examples showcase that authenticity isn’t just a buzzword: it’s a powerful tool available to brands that empower their creator partners.

Coke’s local collaboration brings little wins to life

Celebrity tie-ins with everyone from Taylor Swift to Elton John may have worked for Coca-Cola in the past, but younger audiences are increasingly looking for something that feels real and relevant to their lives. To reach those consumers in 2025, the beverage brand looked beyond centrally crafted scripts and big names, opting instead to collaborate with smaller-scale creators from different countries.

The influencers were given the chance to create short-form videos in their own styles and leaning on their strengths. The campaign was themed around the ‘little wins’ in life that can turn a regular day into a celebration, informed by research that showed small things (from getting the perfect parking spot to tackling a nagging chore) could deliver joy.

Each creator brought a different approach to the theme. Paperboyo, a British creator known for his inventive use of paper, turned finishing the washing up into a special moment by sketching a dish of pasta and a bottle of Coke that transformed into a real feast.

French duo Little Emperors, who specialise in matching outfits, swapped TV-watching for glamorous costumes and pizza. For the Spanish market, surreal pattern makers Anniset blended fantasy, reality and the iconic silhouette of a Coke bottle, while Italian creator Faffapix used a cancelled night out as an excuse for a night in with a burger and Coke.

By asking local creators to execute the campaign in their own way, Coca-Cola aimed to build credibility as well as visibility across key European markets. The campaign generated 4.75M impressions and 4.46M video views, engaging 48.45K users across the four nations. But more than that, it proved a blueprint for future work across the world.

Creators give brands the opportunity to speak directly to consumers. A brand’s approach should match that. Working with creators in this way delivered Coke a multifaceted campaign that offered audiences something authentic and nuanced to regional differences.

A con artist gives USA Network a viral edge

Coca-Cola wanted to work with local creators who felt relatable and authentic. But when you’re promoting a product that’s all about lies, your influencer collaborations might look a little different.

US reality TV show The Anonymous sees players vote each other out via face-to-face meetings and anonymous digital messages, with deception an essential part of the game. USA Network took a leap when they chose a collaborator to create buzz around their launch: convicted con artist Anna Delvey, who had scammed banks and her own acquaintances while impersonating an heiress.

Short videos in advance of the launch saw Delvey trail the series while showing off her ankle monitor and offer Liar Lessons with tips on gaslighting and deception. Once the series started, she provided regular recaps on the contestants’ actions and tactics.

As a strategy, it was controversial – the campaign began just a day after the end of Delvey’s social media ban and house arrest for her past convictions. The edgy tactic gained serious viral traction, driving social conversation as well as earned media:

34M views and 45K engagements across her personal Instagram, reaching almost 2.3M accounts
40M impressions, almost 19.5M views and over 30K engagements across USA Network’s channels
Press coverage in E! News, Collider, Decider, New York Daily News and Hollywood Life

The lesson here is don’t just play it safe. If you’re looking to shake things up with your product, consider taking risks with your promotion. Though partnering with a con artist might not work for all brands, doing something unexpected helped USA Network cut through the noise and capture the attention of audiences.

Ashley Alexander mobilises a matcha community

Creator Ashley Alexander loves matcha and frequently shares matcha-related content on YouTube and across her other channels. That personal connection (she describes herself as ‘the girl who drinks matcha every single day ‘) helped her build her own matcha brand in 2024 in partnership with start-up studio Moby Ventures.

But her connection wasn’t just with the product. It was with followers who wouldn’t just be her audience or target market, but fully-fledged collaborators. Alexander called the community the ‘Matcha Mob’. With members being offered exclusive behind-the-scenes content. However, they were not just a passive audience; they were asked about colour palettes, design and packaging options, giving input on product development via polls and emails.

Their decisions helped shape the Nami Matcha brand. Resulting in a launch campaign that combined Alexander’s passion for matcha with the ideas and, critically, the buy-in of a fan base that felt a personal connection to the product. The Matcha Mob was not just a social handle or hashtag; instead, it was a purpose-built community that Alexander could communicate and collaborate with directly.

As a result, the public launch saw the product sell out in 24 hours with zero media spend. The brand went on to achieve $3.8M in gross product sales between the July 2024 launch and February 2026.

By breaking down the barriers between company and consumers to create a two-way conversation, you can build community and create advocates for your products. To do this well, brands and creators need to treat their community as partners rather than just a broadcast audience.

From tea fans and fashion influencers to con artists, these case studies show the rewards that are possible when brands allow creators the freedom to do what they do best. Bringing matcha fans into the boardroom or using liars as spokespeople might not work for all brands, but they are great examples of the power of creators to bring real connections.

Press play: The role of video from discovery to retention

info@econsultancy.com (Tereza Litsa) — Fri, 29 May 2026 10:11:24 GMT

Video is increasingly the internet’s favourite form of content. For brands, its ability to capture attention, create an emotional connection and show a product in more detail makes it a powerful tool across the funnel, from discovery to persuasion and even post-purchase.

Here, we explore four case studies of how an FMCG, a B2B, a technology, and a small family brand have used video differently but effectively depending on where a customer is on their path to purchase.

Pringles gamifies UGC to boost visibility

The early stages of the customer journey are about capturing attention, introducing a brand or product or building brand salience. At this stage, audiences may not be actively looking to make a purchase, so video content should focus on awareness and placing the brand front of mind.

Pringles tapped into the long history of social media viral challenges and added a distinctive brand asset – the snack’s hyperbolic paraboloid shape – to raise mental availability of the product. To do this, they introduced the #Pringling challenge, which asked people to share videos of themselves shaping their bodies like a Pringle.

@phoebecrossland
Is that the King of Pringling?!?👀🤴🏻 @Pringles UK & Ireland #pringling

♬ Trendsetter – Connor Price & Haviah Mighty

As part of this campaign, Pringles introduced a TikTok custom interactive effect which included body-tracking technology to get people to mimic the recognisable Pringle curve.

Every attempt was measured on a “% Pringle” scale, which made the process fun, giving users something to engage with and riff on, making it more likely they would post the video and that any audience would stick around to see how well the creator did.

Some chosen challenge videos created by users were repurposed as paid ads to increase the reach of this user-generated content (UGC).

Ultimately, the Pringling challenge led to 50 million boosted impressions in 2024 and an ad recall lift of 7.2%, signalling strong top-of-funnel performance.

This campaign tapped into some of the key attributes of TikTok as a channel: its history of viral challenges, the role of the For You Page (FYP) and the ability to add a custom effect, making it easier (and more fun) for the TikTok audience to take part in the campaign.

Encouraging UGC is a powerful way for brands to enhance their visibility without issues such as ad fatigue or ads feeling like an interruption to the audience’s experience.

Salesforce borrows a page, and an influencer, from B2C to engage and persuade

B2B campaigns are increasingly borrowing from the B2C playbook to engagement their audience and showcase their products.

MrBeast, the world’s biggest YouTube creator, partnered with Salesforce for a Super Bowl ad that encouraged people to solve a puzzle and win $1 million. People were asked to Slack @MrBeast once they found the answer. However, this was more than just an interactive ad. This digital treasure hunt was also a real-world product demonstration.

As with every Super Bowl ad, it got a lot of traction. But this was only one part of the campaign. Slack, which was acquired by Salesforce in 2021, created additional partner videos and customer spotlights, along with a landing page, to talk about how MrBeast’s team used Slack.

This showcased the specific features they relied on to deliver the large-scale campaign and puzzle challenge in just 27 days, demonstrating how a real team put Slack tools to work in their organisation.

The landing page was an opportunity to be more product-focused, highlighting specific features and showcasing videos of the team using Slack for the project. This content acted more like a client case study — only with the additional appeal and reach of being created in partnership with one of the world’s biggest creators.

Mid-funnel videos are all about consideration and persuasion. The best way to influence a purchasing decision is to showcase the product being used in the real world, but that does not mean the content needs to be dry or boring.

This creator partnership shows the value of tapping into the unexpected. Whether that is who the spokesperson is, the focus of the content or offering the kind of challenge people are more familiar with from the consumer space.

Dyson uses great hair days to defend price

Post-purchase video can be used in multiple different ways but one of the most useful is in securing customer success. If customers enjoy and get great results from your product, they are more likely to return for future purchases and may even become brand advocates.

Video content is particularly well suited to tutorials and ‘how-to’ content, all of which help your customers make the most of their purchase. Dyson is a great example of a brand that utilises video post-purchase to ensure customer satisfaction.

Across both the website and social media channels, Dyson has a wide library of practical how-to videos that help customers achieve great results with their products. This has been particularly powerful for its range of haircare tools, where ensuring great hair days and, as a result, an army of advocates helps the brand defend its significantly higher price point versus competitors.

Goat Milk Stuff gets personal for retention

Brands can also use videos to make their customers feel appreciated. Goat Milk Stuff is a family-run business selling goat’s milk-based skincare and edible products. They saw providing a great post-purchase experience as a route to customer retention. To enhance this part of the customer experience they introduced a programme of personalised videos to thank their customers.

Once a customer hit buy, they would send a personalised thank-you video. This not only helped to build brand loyalty but also encouraged customers to leave a testimonial, helping the brand to attract new customers.

Personalised thank-you content helps customers feel appreciated and nurtures the relationship between them and the brand. As an added benefit, this campaign also led to many UGC videos being posted by happy customers after they received their thank-you messages.

Though filming something unique for every customer may be a challenge for larger organisations, AI can help with scaling. For an example of that, see Econsultancy’s Boomtown Unboxed case study.

Both of these post-purchase examples remind us that the customer experience does not end at checkout. Videos are ideal for bringing a product to life, but they can also be a great format for helping brands get closer to their customers.

Conclusion

Videos work best when they are created for a particular moment and purpose.

discovery: Videos should grab attention, stop the scroll, and raise awareness and mental availability of the brand.
Persuasion: Videos should answer questions and resolve any doubts. They should be more specific and focused on demonstrating how your product will meet the customer’s needs.
Post-purchase: This stage is all about adding value. From onboarding to tutorials and personalised videos, you want to help customers form a long-term relationship with your brand.

No matter what stage they happen to be at, it is important to create videos that are relevant to your audience, match content to intent, and reduce friction to help consumers move to the next stage.

How to build next-gen marketing capability

info@econsultancy.com (Econsultancy) — Fri, 22 May 2026 10:12:35 GMT

Dan Southern, Director of Marketing Capabilities at Kimberly-Clark and fellow panellists.

“Let’s start with something we can all agree on: people and their skills matter for business performance.” So began May’s Capability Leaders Forum, opened by Rose Keen, Content and Insight Director at Econsultancy.

Econsultancy’s research backs this up: “One of the most consistent findings we get is that the biggest difference between businesses that outperform the market and those that don’t is how much they invest in their people and their skills,” Keen said. “However, not all those investments are equally effective.”

How to build capability programmes that work for 2026 and beyond was the subject of the forum. The panel brought together Abi Willstead from Specsavers, Dan Southern from Kimberly-Clark, Michelle Atkinson from Carlsberg Britvic and Econsultancy’s Paul Davies to share what is, and isn’t, working inside marketing capability building programmes.

Relevance to marketers’ real jobs is non-negotiable

The success of any capability programme rests on how well it connects to the work people actually do. Where a relevance gap opens between the content, skills or processes covered and the day job, behaviour is unlikely to change, meaning the organisation won’t benefit.

Whether the learning is really transferring through to theday-to-day is one of the key challenges”

– Abi Willstead, Head of Brand & Marketing Excellence at Specsavers

The same is true where barriers, technological, cultural or attitudinal, make newly acquired skills too hard to reach for in the flow of work. As Abi Willstead, Head of Brand & Marketing Excellence at Specsavers, put it: “Whether the learning is really transferring through to the day-to-day is one of the key challenges.”

Keeping skills relevant means responding to a marketing landscape that is not static. This is something most organisations struggle with. As only one in five marketers describes their organisation as able to respond to emerging skills needs.

Responsiveness matters, the panel agreed, but it is not the whole picture. “For a junior team member, there is no swifter route to advancement than getting really good at an emerging GenAI capability, say video generation or corralling AI agents,” Keen shared. “But the half-life of many skills has never been shorter. The leading tool today may not hold that position in a month’s time.”

Strong foundations make fast-changing skills more useful

Econsultancy’s Learning for Growth Model

Not all skills have the same longevity – or urgency. . The panel discussed approaches to balancing both new and foundational skills. Econsultancy splits these skills into two groups: evergreen skills, which are timeless and essential to marketing, and evolving skills, which shift with the market, new technologies and changing consumer behaviour.

Michelle Atkinson, Head of Marketing Capability at Carlsberg Britvic, described how she balances both: “I look at the brand-building programme we’re launching. We are looking to land those core skills that marketers need. But alongside those, we have leadership skills and we have future skills.”

Whatever names are chosen, splitting skills this way sharpens prioritisation. It stops teams chasing only the new and shiny, but it also prevent them getting stuck in marketing theory at the expense of practice.

Abi Willstead, Head of Brand & Marketing Excellence at Specsavers

Willstead described how Specsavers has applied this approach: “The first thing we did was really lean into those evergreen skills. Those foundational skills needed to raise the floor. Now, we’re in a position of really going after more of the Evolve part of that model.” With the fundamentals secure, the focus at Specsavers has shifted to those emerging skills, but even there the team is being deliberately selective.

Taking the view that the fundamentals do not compete with fast-moving skills. They are what make those skills usable. That matters particularly around AI, and the judgement needed to decide when an AI output is actually useful. As Willstead put it: “The risk here is that we become over-reliant on some of these AI agents to do our jobs.”

Dan Southern, Director of Marketing Capabilities at Kimberly-Clark, said that risk is pushing one skill area in particular up the agenda. “As our workflows become more reliant on artificial intelligence and LLMs producing outputs, we’ve got to make sure that the marketers within our community have very strong critical thinking skills.”

Curation and personalisation, not just access drives engagement

The event panel Abi Willstead from Specsavers, Dan Southern from Kimberly-Clark, Michelle Atkinson from Carlsberg Britvic and Econsultancy’s Paul Davies sharing their capability building experiences.

“I like to use the analogy of a library versus a gallery,” explained Paul Davies, Managing Director at Econsultancy. “If you walk into a library and you don’t know what you’re looking for, it is confusing. But a gallery, where everything is curated for you, is a better experience.”

Access and engagement are not the same thing

– Paul Davies, Managing Director at Econsultancy.

Many organisations, he added, invest heavily in a learning management system or experience platform, only to find that six to twelve months later almost no one is using it. “Access and engagement are not the same thing.”

Michelle Atkinson, Head of Marketing Capability at Carlsberg Britvic

For Atkinson, the issue is timing and need: “Nobody wants to learn how to change a tyre until they get a puncture. Then you want to learn how to change a tyre real quick.”

Building targeted, effective programmes demands a more learner-centric approach. When Southern arrived at Kimberly-Clark 18 months ago, isolated content existed, but it had been built without first generating curiosity or a desire to learn. That needed to change. “It’s about exciting people, making people curious and making people want to learn. Getting people to have learning agility,” he said.

Together, the panel’s experience and Econsultancy’s research point to a clear conclusion: building next-generation marketing capability is not about buying a platform or launching a series of courses. It is about designing learning that connects to real work, rests on strong foundations, and is supported by the culture and technology around it.

That matters even more now, in a period of rapid technological change. As Davies put it: “Capability programmes are transformation in disguise.”

Want to attend Econsultancy’s next Capability Leaders Forum and be a part of the conversation? Secure your seat here.

Shifting influence and structured data: What brands need to know about agentic commerce

rose.keen@econsultancy.com (Rose Keen) — Thu, 14 May 2026 08:54:36 GMT

As these autonomous economic operators take on the shopping on behalf of the user, brands are finding they need to ask, ‘What do you do when your customer is an agent?’.

What is a shopper agent?

An AI agent is a system or program that can autonomously perform tasks on behalf of a user. In the case of shopper agents this means researching, comparing, and purchasing on behalf of customers.

AI agents are already making purchases

Last year, Amazon launched its ‘Buy for Me’ functionality in Beta. This tool is able to order products on behalf of the user from other sites outside of Amazon’s own ecosystem. Since then, Amazon added an auto-buy feature to its AI assistant Rufus, allowing users to set a ‘right price’ for any particular item. When the product reaches that price, Rufus hits the buy button on their behalf.

Though these are limited use cases, they are real life examples of agentic commerce in the wild among consumers – outside of AI evangelists.

Consumers using agents to take the work out of finding the best deal, or the right product for them – at least in utility categories

Simple as these examples are, they do give a potential taste of what the agentic future may look like in the short-term. Consumers using agents to take the work out of finding the best deal, or the right product for them – at least in utility categories.

Though current agentic solutions to shopping do require users to make a specific request, platforms are testing systems that work based on intent. This means that Agents will be able to anticipate what the consumer wants, based on a rich profile of their preferences, behaviours and lifestyle. However, for consumers to hand over the full process (and their credit cards), with no oversight or final sign-off, will require significant trust in the technologies. Something the current breed of agents have not, as yet, potentially earned.

The infrastructure race is on

Infrastructure will of course be key in developing that trust, with tech platforms like Amazon, OpenAI and Google and financial companies like Mastercard and Visa already building the foundations required to allow these agentic dreams to become reality.

This matters for brands and retailers as that infrastructure will shape what they need to do to ensure they don’t miss out on agentic transactions. A key update brands and retailers should be aware of is the launch of Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP).

The UCP is an open-source standard for online shopping. It is essentially a shared set of rules and language that allows different ecommerce players to talk to each other without friction. Google is not alone in proposing a protocol designed to provide the structure AI agents require, but it does seem to be the one getting the most traction.

Adopting a UCP ensures information about products, baskets, checkout and orders is organised in a way that is same across different stores, platforms and apps.

Though this protocol covers all of ecommerce, it is designed to facilitate (and win Google a slice of) the agentic purchase journey. Having a consistent approach allows agents to understand and find products in a predictable way across different sites, removing the risk that the agent either ‘guesses’ wrong or ignores a site that it cannot understand.

Adopting a shared language is powerful. There are risks to organisations that whichever protocol they adopt leaves them too dependent on a particular platform. Something that whichever platform wins the race to become the standard, is likely aiming for.

While those platforms vie for position, the place where we will likely see widespread adoption of AI agents first is China. With the combination of a digital ecosystem dominated by super-apps, which already connect multiple services, along with robust authorisation infrastructure and the penetration of digital payment methods, China has the ideal foundations for agentic commerce to function.

How to get shopper agent ready

Brands and retailers need to prepare for a future where their relationship with the user is mediated by an autonomous technology – at least for parts of the journey.

Agents shift the sphere of influence

Agent-mediated shopping will shift how and when brands can enact influence. For the human element of that influence, it likely moves up funnel. If the research phase, (seeking out the best deal and the actual transaction) is being handled by the customer’s agent, then the battle is really about being the user’s pre-existing or named preference.

This can be thought of as the difference between asking an agent to book ‘an Italian restaurant for Friday night’ and booking ‘My favourite Italian restaurant’.

This will have an impact on where marketers will want to place their focus and spend their budget, as performance ads lose their role and brand becomes only more important.

In a world of shopper agents, of course the human represents only one half of the sphere of influence. Agents can be influenced as well.

In a recent piece of research in the Harvard Business Review authors Mark J. Greeven, Fabrice Beaulieu and Wei Wei describe this as competing for the ‘agent shelf’, saying that ‘The decisive question becomes: Under what conditions will an agent reliably include you, even before a customer sees alternatives?’

For retailers and brands this means structured product data (ensuring the agent can see, understand and do business with you) and then reputation and trust signals. Which agents will likely use to ensure they are making the right choice for their user.

Just like with ecommerce, the role of shopping agents will likely be different depending on category. The way we purchase for a meat thermometer online is very different to how we shop for a car, for instance and the same will be true in a world where we all have a personal shopping agent at our disposal.

This means exactly how and how much of the customer journey agents will absorb will depend on your product, customer type and how customers view you. The best advice is then to stay close to customer behaviour and start building the data and reputation layer that will help you win, whether the final decision is made by a human or an agent.

For more on the rise of AI agents register for Econsultancy’s Digital Shift to hear the latest about AI’s role in CX. 23^rdJune 2026, 9am and 4pm BST

Or explore all of Econsultancy’s AI reporting and guidance here.

GenAI in CX: How brands are enhancing customer experiences with AI content

info@econsultancy.com (James Smart) — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 10:50:35 GMT

How do you cut through the noise to offer customers something that builds connections? For many brands the answer lies in experiential campaigns that prioritise human emotion. And while AI is by its nature artificial, its ability to offer hyper-personalised solutions and sift through vast reams of data to build unique insights can make it a powerful driver of connection. These three case studies show how marketers can craft distinctive, immersive stories that speak to the past, present and future, reaching the customer at the right moment on their path to purchase.

Festival memories drive ticket sales

Music festivals may feel like they’re everywhere in the summer – if you’re not at one, you’re almost certainly scrolling past the posts of people who are. But, with high overheads and a dependency on securing the right acts, events like these are a competitive business, and early sales are essential in guaranteeing success.

The eclectic UK festival Boomtown chose to amplify its unique buzz by producing a personalised digital souvenir – all while its crowds were still nursing their hungover heads. Working with events partner Amplify and digital agency Monks, an AI-powered engine collected thousands of data points about every user of the festival app to construct eight story ‘modules’, filled with footage from the festival and soundtracked by live performances.

The result? Boomtown Unboxed, a sixty-second reel that was shared within 72 hours of the festival finishing: a personalised highlights video for festival-goers: who’d lived every moment – even if they couldn’t quite remember all of them. Here real-life moments – “Where you danced, who you discovered, what you became” – formed digital connections.

By reminding festivalgoers of the good times they’d had just as they were returning to their regular lives, Boomtown turned revellers into brand advocates. The campaign resonated with festival goers and, crucially, drove ticket take-up for next year’s event:

over 75k stories generated
88% average reel completion rate
over 40% of viewers downloaded or shared their personal video
the festival enjoyed its most successful sales month ever after the campaign

Key learning

AI’s power of personalisation at scale offers brands the chance to gift consumers their own data back in a compelling narrative format. Boomtown turned a wild and fleeting weekend into thousands of bitesize digital assets that its users wanted to share – boosting awareness and driving ticket sales. Consider what data you have access to and how it could be leveraged to build a personalised connection with your customer.

Pond’s visualisation turns a could-have into a must-have

While Boomtown looked back for inspiration, American beauty and healthcare company Pond’s offered a different kind of time travel: forecasting the future, and giving users the chance, like Marty McFly, to change it for the better.

The Unilever-owned brand wanted to build awareness and increase the number of new users of its sun protection products in Southeast Asia. The challenge: consumers across the region saw sun damage as an abstract danger: something that might affect them in the future, but that wasn’t worth worrying about now.

Pond’s saw a chance to use AI to visualise the impact of sunburn – and make it personal. The UV Miracle Launch campaign was centred around the company’s proprietary Sun Damage Try-On Tool. It analyses users’ selfies and uses their age, habits, clinical results and real-time UV data to fuel generative AI. An image of the users face was split to show what their face could look like both with and without sun protection, showing changes in skin tone, levels of hydration, spots and fine lines.

Hosted on ponds.com in a format optimised for social sharing, the tool was also featured in photo booths at brand activations and was showcased by dermatologists at industry events. This multi-pronged approach aimed to drive engagement and education, as well as emphasise Pond’s longstanding (the company was founded in 1846) authority in skincare.

The campaign drove:

over 900k organic views
over 29 million boosted views
over 90% underlying sales growth
+37 percentage point penetration uplift

Key learning

Here, AI made theoretical damage feel real by overlaying the sun’s impact on the user’s face. Generative tools can make previously remote issues feel personal, turning a ‘nice to have’ product into a must-have. Consider what personalised content might convince your customer.

Hotel group uses data to build human touch

Clermont Hotel Group has 17 hotels in London and needed a strategy to cut through the hubbub of London content on socials and blogs to gain market share. Unlike the other two examples featured here, it did not offer a personalised solution. Instead, it focused on curation – and great food.

@theclermontlondon
Looking for the perfect day out in London? Take the Uber boat from Embankment, just steps away from The Clermont, Charing Cross and spend the day at @Battersea Power Station. From luxury shopping to dining at @Arcade Food Hall, it’s the perfect way to spend a day in the city ✨ Save for your next trip! #BatterseaPowerStation #London #LondonCityBreak #UberBoat #LondonDayOut

♬ Write This Down (Instrumental) – SoulChef

Working with local agency Found, Clermont was inspired by London’s world-class eating scene and the way food can offer a tangible and authentic experience. To make their campaign distinctive, they choose a hook: ‘hidden gems’ that visitors might otherwise miss. Their aim was to help potential guests ‘taste the essence of a place, turning their hotel stays into a culturally enhancing experience, rather than just accommodation’.

AI helped the team sift through millions of social media posts and engagements to develop a ranking formula that could identify these high-quality but under-the-radar places to eat. GenAI then helped build both the strategy and the core content itself – carefully curated best of articles – that would drive traffic and help Clermont differentiate itself. The recommendations were then shared via social media ads targeted at users who’d engaged with relevant posts, blog articles and their video series that highlight hidden gems and monthly newsletters revealing top picks.

The resulting campaign had a 1.21% clickthrough rate, an 8.43% conversion rate (around three times higher than the average travel and hospitality rate) and delivered a return on ad spend of 26.22.

Key learning

While Boomtown and Pond’s used AI to generate thousands of personalised experiences, Clermont shows the opposite path. By crunching millions of data points AI can assess hard-to-quantify trends and vibes and serve up wise and immersive advice – here, mimicking an expert hotel concierge whose tips have a real cultural cachet. Consider what trends and hidden insights in your own data could you use AI to highlight for your own customers?

These case studies show brands using AI to capture the past, predict the future and curate the present. We all know AI can be efficient but, used the right way, it can also create something decidedly human, building experiences that matter. That traction is about more than just clicks – it’s a path to long term brand value and growth.

Explore more

Level up: How games can help brands win the audience attention game

info@econsultancy.com (James Smart) — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 17:03:50 GMT

Gaming is where Gen Z and Gen Alpha unwind and connect. Marketers must be careful not to disrupt that, brands that get in the way of gamers’ good times will get nowhere. Instead, successful in-game campaigns fuel players fun and offer them new worlds to explore.

Here, we explore how Audible, Knorr, and Universal moved beyond simple ads via lore-driven mysteries, gameplay hacks and multi-world integrations. Their inventive marketing encouraged gamers to do more than just watch, instead it turned them into active participants.

Audible and Twitch’s Orwellian nightmare

How do you interest Gen Z in a literary classic? Audible started with a book that still resonates today – George Orwell’s dystopian thriller Nineteen Eighty-Four.

For this they hired an all-star cast that included Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo and Andrew Scott for a new, dramatic audiobook production. But to market it to younger listeners, they knew they hard to try something different.

Audible took to the live-streaming platform Twitch to amplify its message in a way that played on the novel’s themes of media control. In April 2024 it set up ‘Truth HQ’, a propaganda channel for 1984’s fictional government, Ingsoc. The launch was low-key, and no explanation was provided, generating confusion and buzz within Twitch’s chat and Discord channels.

Having set the propaganda rolling, Audible needed a team to expose it. Twitch worked with UK streamers AnnaDemetriou, Tyrone and CaptainPuffy, who have a combined audience of 1.6 million subscribers, most in the coveted 16-24 demographic. They were given three two-hour streams to crack a series of tasks and games. Challenges featured navigating building plans, avoiding surveillance cameras and dodging lasers, generating drama and engagement, with viewers invited to help solve the mission on chat.

This collaboration generated over 34,000 Twitch chat messages, and helped the streamers, or ‘hackers’ as they were dubbed for the campaign, succeed. The propaganda was interrupted and replaced with a stream of the audiobook.

The results:

Over one million unique viewers
5 million minutes of partner streams were viewed
1984 became April’s global chart-topper on Audible and the number one audiobook in the UK

Knorr #ModTheVeg make veggies the ultimate power-up

Food brand Knorr is known for its soups, many of which are packed with vegetables. With the routine of home cooking often not being passed down to Gen Z, the company was keen to get its convenient products on the menu for younger consumers.

Knorr knew Gen Z spends more time gaming than watching TV. The company noticed that vegetables featured in gaming often provided lower health points or bonuses than other food types.

Knorr decided to change that norm via a largescale campaign called #ModTheVeg that ran across 22 markets. It worked with agencies including Dutch gaming specialists, The Invaders, and influencers such as Jordy2D and Ninja to promote the issue and encourage gaming companies to make vegetables more valuable. Crucially the team also introduced mods – user-generated patches that change graphics or gameplay – that transformed the role of veg across different games.

Knorr introduced carrot missile launchers and vegetable parkour into Fortnite, replaced buffalo with vegetables in Red Dead Redemption and brought a radish suit of armour into Minecraft, making the campaign fun and tapping into mods community-led feel.

The campaign clocked up:

$1.1 billion earned reach
95 million impressions
Over 10,000 people played the mods
26,000 hours of #ModtheVeg streamer content consumed in 48 hours
Brand association rose by 20% among gamers

Jurassic World Rebirth comes to Roblox

Thirty years ago, Jurassic Park captured audiences attention with cutting-edge CGI and dramatic action. The franchise returned in 2025 with its latest instalment Jurassic World Rebirth, but while its premise was familiar to adults, Universal didn’t want its dinosaurs to seem old fashioned to the younger generation. In an increasingly fractured media landscape, how could Jurassic Park capture the attention of Gen Z and Gen Alpha?

The answer came in the form of Roblox, whose multiple games offered the opportunity to meet young gamers on their home turf. The company linked virtual play to real-world intent (in the form of cinema bookings) by weaving Jurassic Rebirth into different formats.

Universal introduced creatures from Jurassic World into three Roblox experiences, with the beasts chosen carefully for each game. Players of fishing sim Fisch could catch a Mosasaurus, while Chained’s obstacle course was menaced by a ravenous Quetzalcoatlus and drivers in survival game A Dusty Trip faced Velociraptors and a T-Rex.

Player companions inspired by the movies, in the form of a mission specialist, palaeontologist and fixers, were also introduced to offer in-game perks. The campaign also featured virtual items including Quetzalcoatlus wings and a T-Rex head. Fans could unlock additional exclusives for their avatars by redeeming digital Roblox gift cards, which granted virtual items like a Jurassic World Rebirth-branded backpack containing a tiny dinosaur.

A 24-hour ad placement on the home page of Roblox helped drive engagement, alongside billboard videos and portal ads that took players directly to each experience.

The campaign acheived:

5 Million+ cumulative daily active users
4 Million+ total sessions
+37% lift in ad recall among users aged 13+
72% average increase in daily searches for Jurassic on the platform
+6% rise in cinema watch intent for ages 13-34

Success with engaging audiences in gaming environments means thinking beyond simple messaging, brands should build narratives, work with streamers, harness mods and construct multi-world campaigns for real, lasting engagement.

In gaming, the best campaign isn’t an advert, it’s a quest.

Dive deeper

- Creating Great CX and Omnichannel Experiences
- Fizzing bazookas and grassroots cricket: How brands are doing more with sponsorships

From AI integrations to the human drivers of success – Five key findings from our Future of Marketing report

info@econsultancy.com (Tereza Litsa) — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 11:42:51 GMT

There’s no better way to understand what is changing in the world of marketing than by asking more than a thousand marketing professionals who are experiencing the shifts in real-time. It’s the seventh edition now of our The Future of Marketing report, and we are looking at marketers’ plans, priorities, and concerns for the next two years.

First of all, how optimistic are marketing professionals about the future?

Marketers are still feeling optimistic

More than half of marketers (56%) feel optimistic about the future. With one in five describing themselves as very optimistic about it.

This sounds positive, but we still need to highlight the drop from last year’s responses, as last year 76% of marketers said they were optimistic about the future.

This year, the vibe among marketers has shifted more towards neutrality, which may have to do with the broader state of the economy and global events.

Marketers’ optimism

Source: Econsultancy’s Future of Marketing Survey 2026 | How optimistic do you feel about the future of marketing? | Sample: 940

AI now moves to the real-world effects

GenAI has been a theme of this research for the last couple of editions, but this year things seem to have changed. As marketers are starting to have to deal with the realities of this new AI-enabled world.

76% of marketers expect AI to reshape the function of marketing. However, these changes do not stop at the office door. Increasingly, marketers are looking to understand how consumers view their GenAI integrations into customer touchpoints.

Most marketers report that the integration of GenAI into customer experience has been either positive or neutral, based on consumers’ reactions. The graph below seems reassuring for those who are still cautious about using GenAI to improve customer experience.

Consumers’ response to GenAI integrations

Source: Econsultancy’s Future of Marketing Survey 2026 | Where GenAI has been integrated into a brand’s marketing or customer experience, what has been the consumer response? | Sample: 850

Still, there is a gap between market followers (those who underperformed or just kept pace with their sector) and leaders (those who outperformed their market) on the use of GenAI, from content personalisation to customer support and onsite search.

In this case, it’s not necessarily the tools that make the difference, but the strategy of the organisation and the skills of the teams using them.

“One of the key findings from our dedicated GenAI research last year was the clear link between competitive performance and AI maturity,” explains Rose Keen, Content and Insight Director at Econsultancy. “However, not all rollouts are created equal. It seems that, more than the choice of model or tool, the key to AI success is thought and taking the human team into account.”

“With those reporting the most success, being those who also took a more strategic approach and invested in upskilling their teams.”

The importance of good CX

Source: Econsultancy’s Future of Marketing Survey 2026 | How significant will customer experience (CX) be to your organisation’s success over the next two years? (Significant and Very Significant) | Sample: 934

As tech evolves and consumer expectations change, there is a need for a re-evaluation of what we define as ‘good’ CX.

To do so, marketers should focus on:

Quality data – without access to real-time data that gives you insights about your customers’ habits across all channels, you don’t really know your customer.
Technology – new tech like AI creates exciting new possibilities, but there are still gaps in marketers’ tech foundations, with 83% of marketers reporting shortcomings in their martech stack.
Skills – As one-fifth of marketers find that their lack of the right skills impacts their ability to deliver on their organisation’s customer experience ambitions.

Human skills are a competitive advantage

The rise of GenAI and the democratisation of tools has amplified the need to focus on the human element as a competitive advantage. As people get access to the same tools, it’s the human skills and how we use the tech that make us stand out.

79% of marketers recognise that the people behind the work are the key differentiator, which calls for a greater need to invest in capability and skills building to empower teams.

Marketers recognise growth comes from people

Source: Econsultancy’s Future of Marketing Survey 2026 | Sample: 863

The need for upskilling

Upskilling is a key driver in competitive performance.

According to Econsultancy’s research, there is a clear connection between a company’s investment in capability building and its business performance. In fact, the importance placed on people and skills emerged as one of the main differentiators between market leaders and followers this year.

For Simona Divisova, Learning and Development Consultant, Canon EMEA, linking capability building to the business strategy is essential: “The most effective organisations are moving away from generic skills lists and instead linking capability directly to business strategy and the operating model. L&D is evolving from a service provider to a strategic operating system for transformation, systematically identifying, building and sustaining the skills required to execute business priorities.”

However, it’s also important for a company to provide training that matches the needs of the moment and builds for the future. Only 20% of marketers report that the training provided by their company meets their needs and can respond as new skills emerge.

For marketers, it’s no surprise that AI skills come first in their priorities for learning, with social media and data skills coming up second and third.

Looking at the ‘AI skills’ more closely, our research on the AI skills gap last year found that practical guidance on prompting was most in demand, with integration into workflows and technical knowledge coming out next.

According to Simona Divisova, AI skills, critical thinking and data storytelling will be essential for 2026 as a way to complement the increasing needs of blending human skills and AI workflows.

Beyond the ‘hard skills’, marketers also recognise the need to focus on creativity, curiosity, and critical thinking to ensure innovation with traits that GenAI cannot replicate.

Looking at this year’s Future of Marketing report the data suggests a need for organisations to invest in the human competitive advantage. Both in terms of upskilling, but also in mindset and how we support marketers to feel confident in this new landscape. It requires organisations to consider what they need to put in place so that their teams can keep up with the pace of change.

Explore more

Download the full Future of Marketing report here

From pet analytics to automotive matchmaking: Three brands using data as creative fuel

info@econsultancy.com (James Smart) — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 15:02:40 GMT

Source: Shutterstock

Brands have more and more data at their fingertips, but this treasure trove is only valuable if you leverage it right. That often means looking beyond the obvious, as shown by three campaigns that mix pet collar analytics with earthquakes, cars with dating apps and sensory analysis with dirty martinis. They show how a business can use data to build narratives that resonate and campaigns that win.

Audi uses data to turn matchmaker

In early 2025, Audi aimed to maximise leads and sales by guiding consumers towards the right car for them. But navigating an 80+ vehicle portfolio is not easy – and in a world in which consumers increasingly seek out advice from online forums, marketplaces and review sites, Audi wanted to maximise its voice.

The campaign was built around a creative insight – that choosing a car can be almost as hard as finding a partner. Audi needed both a compelling way to speak to consumers, and the right data to offer robust and trustworthy recommendations for each individual. Quantitative research with over 1,300 customers as well as Audi’s own product specialists helped the German auto giant build a data library and craft a range of intuitive lifestyle-based questions that could help them match-make consumers to a car that worked for them.

Source: Tiac.Design, Andy Cooke

The company used a back-end engine that they called Jeremy to interpret millions of potential combinations and deliver bespoke recommendations in response to questions about driving styles and what consumers want from a vehicle. The Jeremy-powered campaign, Audi Match, began on Valentines’ Day, with playful creative and design that played on the UI of a dating app.

Rolled out across paid social channels with a mobile focus, the social campaign generated an average CPC of £0.25 with a CTR of 3.19%, exceeding the target of 0.8%. People who used the tool had a 65.4% conversion rate to high-value behaviours, ultimately driving a 144.2% uplift in conversion to leads.

Audi Match was built on data that allowed it to map out the consumer journey and predict buyer motivations. This gave the brand the freedom to be inventive, by looking not at rivals in the automotive space, but at Tinder and its competitors. By adopting the UI and psychology of a different industry, Audi turned a complex 80-car inventory into a fun, personal discovery process and gave people the confidence to make the right decision.

Diageo delivers contextual cocktail suggestions

When spreading the digital word, food brands have one major advantage over their equivalents in the beverage space: the popularity of online recipes.

Drinks giant Diageo discovered that 97% of consumers searched for recipes online, but that only 3% searched for beverage pairing. This was a challenge and an opportunity. To leverage it, the company turned to its rich database to hit potential customers at just the right moment.

Source: Shutterstock

The What’s Your Cocktail campaign aimed to connect with people during food celebrations. The secret sauce was FlavorPrint, an AI tool that crunches millions of data points about consumer tastes to predict individual preferences.

By measuring taste, texture and aroma and analysing real-time interactions on major online food platforms, Diageo and AI marketing agency Keenfolks developed an ad module that interacts with sites like Allrecipes and BBC Good Food to deliver ads for cocktail recommendations that would complement different meals. A Madras recipe, for instance, could be paired with a cassis bramble or a Ketel One dirty martini. Diageo also partnered with online platform Relish to allow consumers to then add the ingredients to their basket.

The campaign resulted in 64m targeted impressions across US and UK markets and a click-through rate at 4x the industry average.

This campaign also revealed new product development opportunities, with seasonal trends and regional variations in customer preferences revealed from the data.

Diageo showed that it isn’t just about the richness of your data: it’s about choosing the moment to use it. These personalised recipes were revealed at the precise point they could naturally intercept the consumer journey. At the end of the campaign, those chicken curry eaters would have a drink in mind.

PetPace uses dog data to predict earthquakes

What connects pets, Peru and earthquakes? US company PetPace offers AI-powered collars that monitor pets’ health, and its 2024 Animal Alerts campaign joined the dots while driving millions of impressions.

The campaign began with a sobering fact: thousands die from earthquakes every year. Thanks to Peru’s location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, the city of Lima is particular affected experiencing an earthquake almost every day. While earthquake prediction is an inexact science, dogs often show signs of agitation in the run-up to an event. PetPace looked to harness these signals as an early warning giving the dogs – and the humans around them – time to move to a safe place.

PetPace’s collars measure data including temperature, pulse and heart rate variability, using AI algorithms to spot patterns. Pets were recruited and retail partnerships with pet food stores helped expand the operation. Ultimately, 538 dogs were signed up in Lima, giving the company a rich data set that it used to forecast coming events. As data continued to flow, geotargeted, real-time alerts were sent out via mobile, as well as through banner ads and radio.

As a result, 18 seismic events were detected, nine million residents were alerted and ads gathered 210 million impressions. The campaign won PetPace valuable attention, but it also hit on a genuine need. In 2026, the campaign is set to be rolled out to Japan, where it hopes to once again show how hi-tech pet collars can collect rich insights and keep pets and their owners safe. By repurposing their core biometrics into a public safety tool, PetPace earned massive brand authority.

Takeaways

What can brands learn from these examples?

1. Look outside of your direct competitors

When you’re looking for ideas, look beyond your rivals – there’s a world of inspiration in different sectors. Case studies like this, award winners or just experiences from your daily life can all be drawn on to help you think differently and create cut through.

2. Delivering the right message at the right time

Data richness matters, but so does finding the right moment to use it. Diageo’s contextually relevant cocktail recommendations are a great example of understanding the customer journey and appearing in the moments that matter.

3. Using data to build trust

Data is not just a tool with one purpose: it is a toolkit that can be used in innovative ways. Consider the ways the data you hold could create value outside of the business.

As these case studies show, data can open up startling creative possibilities. Think outside the box: you might be surprised where you end up – and what your marketing efforts can achieve.

Dive deeper

- The power of stories: How to create an impact with data and why it matters
- Being Customer-Centric with Data