Below are some examples of growth challenges we've helped our clients tackle
How to get our 'challenging' and distinctive global beer brand resonating with the cultural zeitgeist
We've worked hand-in-hand with Guinness over the past 30 years, on every continent, helping guide the brand on its ongoing growth journey.
In 2019 we jointly led a strategic insight workstream across major global markets to shape the brand's 5-year vision, and inform a new positioning and platform idea
Guinness delivered global organic net sales growth of 32% in 2022. It is now the number 1 selling pint in GB, and was named 2023 Brand of the Year by Marketing Week
Since then we've continued our close partnership - most recently, in January 2026, to shape expression of the new global brand platform. Guinness has gone from strength to strength and is now the jewel in Diageo's crown
Why has our formerly all-conquering drinks brand started to lose its momentum & cultural mojo?
To guide one of the biggest RTD brands in the US back to growth, we initially ran a programme of Strategic Consultancy - a Foundational Insight Audit, Semiotic Analysis & Cultural Intelligence - followed by multi-stage Exploratory Consumer Research
The core aim has been to identify key cultural & category drivers of the brand's initial dramatic growth post launch, factors behind the subsequent flattening of this growth trajectory, and how the brand can get back to growth in the far more dynamic RTD category of today
This workstream is ongoing (having begun mid 2025). Our recommendations are already shaping brand repositioning, and fuelling innovation and activation initiatives
How can we reorientate our newsbrand's global mission around Trust, Truth and Transparency?
In early 2022, to guide development of a new global positioning for BBC News, we set out to understand what audiences in 7 markets (Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia & USA) value in news, and newsbrands, to define the our client's global positioning
Subsequently, a year later, we dove deeper into these questions, exploring Trust, Truth & Transparency, in Brazil, Egypt, India, Kenya, UK & USA, to shape and codify the brand's global News Mission.
3 years after completing our work, it remains a core touchstone of the organisations' brand activity and editorial decision making
How to make the world of alcohol in India, and the way our brands participate in it, more gender inclusive
Running over several months in 2023, we adopted an iterative, multi-phase approach to this complex set of objectives, exploring the interplay between cultural portrayal, couple & family dynamics, deep-rooted societal attitudes and the individual choices of consumers navigating the world of drinking and socialising
Or approach included analysing the semiotics of gender portrayal in culture, a series of fascinating interviews with screenwriters, female entrepreneurs, activists, relationship therapists, bartenders, along with a online community and drinker ethnographies across India
The project culminated in a series of workshops in Delhi with the key stakeholders across our client's brand portfolio, to shape their gender-inclusive growth strategy in India
How to make baby feeding products more affordable for Middle Income parents
In mid 2024, we ran foundational ethnography and consumer workshop sessions with lower-income consumers in Brazil & Indonesia, to deeply understand parents’ attitudes and behaviours in the highly emotionally-charged context of baby feeding, and how far the current category delivered what they needed.
Followed 6 months later by developmental research in these same markets, to evaluate and optimise new bottle and teat concepts, and service propositions
The findings have informed ongoing innovation of a range of more affordable baby feeding products, and whole new way of thinking about parents' and babies' needs
How to generate incremental growth for the world's biggest gin in a slowing category
We ran a multi-phase research and innovation consultancy approach to fuel incremental growth for Gordon's in GB - and reinvigorate the core brand
Explore & Create: Consumer Ethnography, Trade Interviews & Ideation
Workshop in the UK to identify opportunity spaces and generate a suite of ideas
Concept Development phase: To evaluate & optimise the strongest ideas
Gordon’s Spritz Edition was launched into the UK market in Autumn 2025
Which climate change narratives do consumers most resonate with?
In late 2022, we ran a programme of exploratory IDIs and Consumer Workshops in the UK, India & Brazil, to examine homecare consumers’ attitudes and understanding around sustainability
The learnings were used to inform Unilever’s Climate Action Transition Plan, and to feed into messaging around lower carbon impact product innovation
How should we tell 'the stories of England', to shape a more inclusive positioning for England’s leading heritage organisation?
In four waves of research over 18 months, we explored themes around History, Heritage and Englishness with a diverse range of audiences to understand what would make English Heritage genuinely relevant and inspiring - especially to cohorts who didn't feel the organisation had anything to offer them
The findings were revelatory - and deeply encouraging - guiding a wholesale repositioning of the organisation, and significant evolution in its approach to engagement and communication