5 Logic-Defying CX Truths from Diageo’s Intelligence Engine

How does a brand with long-term equity navigate a world where TikTok trends become passe in two weeks? This isn't just a question of speed; it's a crisis of relevance. For a heritage brand managing a barrel of whiskey that's been aging for 12 years, reacting to fleeting fads may not be a sound business decision. Chasing such moments risks brand identity while ignoring them risks irrelevance.

To solve this paradox, beverage leader Diageo developed a sophisticated "foresight system" with partners SAMY and Sprinklr. This isn't another tool for listening to consumers; it’s an intelligence engine designed to understand and track the future of culture itself. In building it, Diageo uncovered several logic-defying truths that challenge the conventional wisdom of brand strategy.

Truth #1: Your brand isn't the conversation; it's an entry point

Diageo's first breakthrough was realizing that listening to brand mentions is a defensive tactic, while listening to culture is a strategic offensive. The challenge wasn't a lack of data on Tanqueray or Johnnie Walker. The real goal was to understand how people organically talk about abstract, high-level concepts like "conscious well-being" or "pleasure."

This requires a far more complex approach than simply monitoring brand hashtags. It involves translating abstract human desires into trackable queries and analyzing conversations that have no direct link to a product. While more difficult, this method provides a richer, more strategic understanding of the underlying currents shaping consumer behavior long before they attach to a brand.

"One of the biggest challenges for us setting up the system... it isn't your normal social listening framework, right? You're not looking for #Guinness or @Tanqueray or Johnnie Walker or Don Julio. We're going beyond," said Alberto Romano, Global Consumer and Shopper Planning Collaboration, Diageo.

Here’s Seana Siekman, VP at Athena Global Advisors, sharing why brands shouldn’t treat social listening like a checkbox task:

Truth #2: The fastest-growing consumer driver is surprisingly hedonistic

In a world saturated with conversations about purpose, wellness and sustainability, which major consumer driver do you believe is growing the fastest? Is it "betterment brands" focused on saving the planet? Or "conscious well-being" centered on physical and mental health?

The data reveals a surprising answer. The fastest-growing future driver is neo-hedonism, defined as the search for pleasure and multi-sensorial experiences. According to Diageo's foresight system, this trend is expanding at a remarkable rate of 48% year-over-year. This suggests that in an era dominated by public virtue-signaling, the private pursuit of joy and multi-sensorial escape is becoming a dominant, yet underexplored, driver of consumer choice.

Truth #3: To master "fast culture," you must anchor in "slow culture"

Diageo's framework resolves the whiskey-versus-TikTok dilemma by distinguishing between "slow culture" and "fast culture."

Slow culture refers to the big, long-term human truths or "future drivers" that evolve over decades. These are foundational shifts in human needs. For example, the driver "betterment brands" represents a consistent, long-term concern for the planet.

Fast culture refers to the micro-trends and specific expressions of those slow trends. Twenty years ago, the "fast culture" expression of betterment brands was a concern over CFCs and the ozone layer. Today, it’s about circularity and responsible sourcing. The core value remains but its manifestation changes rapidly.

This framework allows Diageo to build its long-term strategy (like its 2035 strategy) on the stable foundation of slow culture, while using insights from fast, micro-trends to create timely, relevant brand activations. It’s how a 12-year-old whiskey can connect with a two-week trend without compromising its identity.

Truth #4: Quantitative evidence unlocks radical creativity

The strategic power of a “foresight system” lies in its ability to not only identify trends but also quantify their cultural momentum with a volume and growth rate. This hard evidence gives brand teams the confidence to move beyond simply satisfying existing consumer wants. It empowers them to pursue bold, creative ideas that can shape culture, not just follow it, because as Romano noted, "you can go crazy with data behind you."

The Johnnie Walker Blue Label "I Soleil" campaign is the perfect proof point. This activation was born from layering multiple, distinct data signals:

• The 48% YoY growth of the slow-culture driver "neo-hedonism"
• The 45% YoY growth of the fast-culture expression "unique products and experiences"
• The 17% YoY growth of the fast-culture expression "alternative social spaces"

This data synthesis provided an undeniable business case for a campaign centered on "euphoric escapes in the great outdoors." The result was a culturally embedded activation in European apres-ski venues — a powerful fusion of a long-term human desire for pleasure with a timely, relevant expression, all justified by concrete numbers.

Truth #5: True foresight requires a human + tech perfecta

The foresight system's success is not the result of a single tool, but a strategic perfecta of distinct capabilities working in perfect harmony. The scale of the ambition is immense: the initial qualitative research spanned 15 markets and 21 cities, and the system currently listens in three languages (English, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese), covering 53% of the global online conversation. An expansion to nine more languages is underway to achieve 95% coverage.

This was made possible by:

1. Diageo's vision: The ambition to build a global framework that looks beyond its own industry to understand culture on a macro level.

2. SAMY's expertise: The strategic partner whose expertise in semiotics — the science of meaning in language — was critical. It performed the crucial translation of abstract cultural concepts into a rigorous framework of effective, trackable queries. This is not a one-time setup; it’s a constant, iterative process of refreshing the system to capture new consumer expressions.

3. Sprinklr's technology: The core platform that brings the vision to life. Its user-friendly dashboards democratize access to these complex insights, empowering individuals across the global organization to slice and dice data for their specific region or brand. This fosters an internal culture where anyone can say, "let me quickly look that up," turning data from a specialist's tool into a universal language.

The future belongs to those who listen

The lesson from Diageo's journey is clear: the most effective brands are shifting from reactive social listening to proactive cultural foresight. Diageo’s approach shows that modern CX intelligence isn’t about capturing more social mentions — it’s about giving meaning to chatter, measuring what matters and turning those measurements into confident, brand-aligned moves.

The goal is no longer just to follow trends but to anticipate them, understand their deeper roots and find authentic ways to participate in and shape the cultural conversation. By listening beyond their own mentions, brands can begin to hear the future before it arrives.

"Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming."

— David Bowie

The entire discussion is available on-demand and can be viewed on this page.