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 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, 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.

The data-driven Cocktail Discovery Model is an extensive analysis and creative optimization protocol that converted 10 million data points into 1.5 million cocktail specific queries, further segmented into 250 category clusters over the course of six months.

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 engagement that is not possible, or affordable, with other forms of advertising.

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.

As confidence in the data and our ability to refine the insights increased, we expanded further into the 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.

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.