By understanding the true “Voice of the Consumer” as provided when they use search engines, we can leverage this “searcher interests” data to better understand how consumers find inspiration for new cocktail ideas that we call new refer to as the “Cocktail Discovery Model.”

This vast source of data can be mined for creative and segmented targeting insights creating exponential engagement opportunities that contribute directly to bottom-line business growth.

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Data Visualization enabled rapid classification and refinement of the data into useable clusters helping us better understand this targeting group we call “Cocktail Curious.”

Integrating ongoing performance and creative engagement data further enhanced the process by isolating content that better matched the actual interest of the consumer group, fostering deeper engagement and interest.

This created a repeatable process that generated incremental insights as the dataset grew resulting in targeting and optimization improvements in multiple digital channels.

Due to scale, we focused initial efforts on the “Drink Curious” cluster of 53 core cocktail attributes and 107 occasions. The plan was to continue to refine a deeper understanding of these consumer interests and make appropriate content adjustments that established Absolut Vodka as the brand of choice when making these cocktails.

In most cases, there were no brand preferences from the consumer during their quest for the perfect cocktail making it a prime opportunity to connect the brand to the cocktail experience. This helped identify content opportunities in social media, store marketing, search marketing and digital display. By knowing the relative interest in types of cocktails we could present more contextually related ads.

This data-driven innovation fundamentally changed the way the brand thinks about consumers, content that really generates engagement, and creates a sustainable competitive advantage that increases mindshare and ultimately revenue.

A key example of the insights was a test to adapt cocktail images for mobile devices from the traditional vertical to horizontal. This relatively simple creative change increased clicks on mobile recipe cards by 67% which was a major contributor to our goal attainment.

As our confidence in the data and our ability to refine the insights increased, we expanded out further into the 250 different clusters looking for additional targeting and product insights. In total, we integrated data from 43 different sources expanding the dataset to over 10 million records across 1,000 variables. This has included launching nutritional information as well as expanding the product FAQ and sharing these insights with e-commerce channel partners.

This data-driven innovation fundamentally changed the way the brand thinks about consumers, content that really generates engagement, and creates a sustainable competitive advantage that increases mindshare and ultimately revenue.

This program exceeded objectives beyond our expectations. Initially visits increased 24% with mobile traffic specifically increasing by 77% with a total increase of 125%.

Consumer experience improved, demonstrated by page views increasing for “Cocktail Curious” clusters achieved 8.3 with significant increases in eCRM signups far exceeding the goal of 50%.

Revising the content for cocktails with triple sec to include recognizable cocktail names, interaction went from 1.2% CTR to 16.9% driving an additional 22k visits and a 10x increase in signups. This enhancement was deployed across the entire “drinks with” content portfolio.

The data mining and refinement outlined above enabled consumers to discover new and interesting cocktails but, more importantly, helped reinforce Absolut as the vodka brand to consider when looking for interesting cocktails. The increased signups enable Absolut to retarget this audience multiple times in the context of their initial interests, expanded interests, fostering engagement and brand loyalty.

The data-driven Cocktail Discovery Model is an extensive analysis and creative optimization protocol that leverages searcher interest data to understand how consumers find inspiration for new cocktail ideas.

Using human and artificial intelligence, converted 10 million data points into 1.5 million cocktail specific queries, further segmented into 250 category clusters. These clusters revealed over 500 new content opportunities, when implemented and refined, resulted in significant increases in visits, eCRM signups, but more importantly, a level of direct to consumer engagement that is not possible, or affordable, with other forms of advertising.

Data gathering started with the aggregation of multiple internal datasets starting with the drink recipe database of 8,000 cocktail recipes, cocktail ingredients followed by social media and search queries finished with various 3rd party lists from the spirits and beverage industry.

Using the number of searches as a data point, we identified interests and prioritized our targets based on searcher interest levels and the highest probability for engagement, we created relevant content and pushed it to the search engines.

As our ability to refine the insights increased, we expanded further into the clusters looking for additional targeting and product insights for those looking for cocktail ideas. In total, we integrated data from 43 different sources expanding the dataset to over 10 million records across 1,000 variables. This has included launching nutritional information as well as expanding the product FAQ and sharing these insights with e-commerce channel partners.

The brand had been given a goal of significantly increasing eCRM signups. Analysis of current signups indicated organic search, but more specifically “Drink Curious” searchers, those looking for drink ideas based on spirit, occasions or ingredients had significantly higher eCRM signup rate than generic searchers.

The brief was simple, use search query data to find these elusive “Drink Curious” searchers.

What words do they use?

What attracts them and encourages interaction?

What will prompt them to sign up for the Drink of the week email?

The objectives were clear.

Objective 1 – Find the Drink Curious in data then,

Objective 2 – Identify and create content that attracts, engages and retains them, then

Objective 3 – Create a repeatable process that keeps delivering Objective 2, then

Objective 4 – Leverage this process to help capture at least 50% of eCRM goal.