We believe none of us is as smart as all of us working together.
Our diverse team combines the wisdom of experience with the creative energy of a start-up to outperform global networks on any job that requires fast, future-forward thinking to solve the Mighty Questions.
We de-code the future so you can act on it today.
Our Services
Foresights
Unlock new opportunities for where to play.
Future cultural landscape
Discover future consumer opportunities by understanding which cultural forces are accelerating, why & how they will impact your consumers & business.
Overview:
Our proprietary Future Codes are a collection of macro-trends based on social, cultural, technological and science-based signals of change. Future Codes help you understand the forces shaping how we'll live, survive & thrive in the future. They don't just give you the “what” - they articulate the “so what”, so you can turn foresights into action.
Outputs:
- Future forces of change relevant to your consumer & business
- Prioritised drivers & activation plan for embedding into key workstreams
- Where to play definition
Customised trend reports
A single source of inspiration to drive innovation and creative thinking across your innovation, R&D and marketing teams.
Overview:
Trend reports are always fairly interesting, but they're not always relevant to your business needs. We create hyper-relevant trend reports based on your unique industry and objectives so the implications for your business are clear and actionable.
Outputs:
- Trend report including brand exemplars, key signals of now, and implications for your business
- Available as an interactive PDF/PPT
- Trend films for internal communications
- Insight activation sessions
Case Studies:
Cultural innovation safaris
Learn from the leading edge of culture to inspire your team, spot new opportunities, and create an innovation plan to take back to the business - all within one week.
Overview:
Our Safari programmes generate unexpected and original insights by hunting in markets representing the leading edge of culture through highly curated and immersive experiences. Our ambition is to identify actionable insights, rapidly fill your brand innovation pipeline with robust ideas, and help cross-functional teams to think and act differently.
Outputs:
- Insights report: Synthesized observations of themes, insights & stimulus
- Defined spaces of where to play
Case Studies:
Future consumer personas
Imagine your future consumers to spark ideas for innovative products, services and programs.
Overview:
Thriving business leaders must anticipate tomorrow's consumers. Our market researchers and social scientists continuously mine for cultural movements to predict the new forces of change. We translate these forces into custom personas and use them as springboards for ideation.
Outputs:
- Future consumer needs definition
- Persona articulation: Strategic framework, visualisation, and narrative
- Persona Films: A day in the life illustrating needs, attitudes, behaviours and future products
Case Studies:
Hidden needs research
Market landscaping
Get a tailored viewpoint on new Altered States markets to define the implications for your business.
Overview:
We tap into our trends database and broad network of Altered States industry experts to create a customised landscape report that goes deeper than syndicated reports.
Outputs:
- Landscape reports are tailored to your specific needs and may include competitive analysis, growth projections, investment attractiveness, product insights, brand mapping, and insider expert insights
- Where to play definition
Case Studies:
Local market intelligence
Uncover hyper-local insight that reveals upcoming market shifts before they happen, helping you to increase local market relevance and make a lasting impact on the community.
Overview:
Our DCODE programme identifies cultural shifts as they happen, so we can uncover the unique drivers of change that will move your brand and business forward. Our network of local cultural influencers in cities across the US will give you genuine insights that will unlock new opportunities for your brand to become relevant.
Outputs:
- Local Market Reports: Cultural & Cause Movements, Hot Spot Mapping, Passion Points Mapping, Retail, Trade, On-Premise, Off-Premise Opportunities
- Activation Sessions: Ideation & Prioritization for Activation Platforms, Programmes, and Initiatives
- Where to play definition
Brand Innovation
Accelerate how to win by turning insights into ideas & action.
Insight activation sprints
Turn your insights reports from something that goes on the shelf into a cultural movement that quickly gains traction and ignites a chain reaction within your business.
Overview:
We activate insights within your business by creating immersive storytelling experiences that inspire teams to act on the insights you've invested a lot of time and money in developing. Our activation sessions start by immersing your cross-functional teams in concise and actionable insights. We then get participants involved in activities designed to generate fresh ways to apply the insights to current work streams and future business plans.
Outputs:
- Insight meta-analysis and synthesis
- Session design and facilitation - IRL & Virtual
- Insight activation plans
- Sell-in presentations & videos
Product innovation sprints
Win more than your category fair-share and drive top-line growth for your brands and businesses with our approach to meaningful product innovation.
Overview:
We start by discovering and defining your strategic innovation platforms using foresights, emerging signal scanning, and category analysis.
Then our team of innovators, strategists and designers run a multi-day ideation sprint to rapidly generate and test a portfolio of ideas with real consumers - placing their needs on center stage to find out if the ideas are meaningful or not.
We then take these early insights and refine the ideas into testable concepts, lead consumer research and partner with your team to translate the learnings into a robust pipeline of products with the potential to fuel your brand's future growth.
Outputs:
- Sprint design, programme management and facilitation - IRL & Virtual
- Translation of sprint outcomes into presentations, concepts, prototypes, and videos
- Research stimulus including propositions and illustrations
- Research management
- Product pipeline articulation
Platform innovation sprints
Give your brand or company a strategic jump-start by accelerating platform development through collaboration.
Overview:
Our Brand ImaginAction sprints bring cross-functional stakeholders and partner agencies together to rapidly develop innovative platforms that move the brand towards its goals. Our strategists and creatives collaborate with your team to design and deliver an inspiring sprint resulting in compelling narratives that inspire organisational change, alignment and consumer testing.
Outputs:
- Sprint design, programme management and facilitation - IRL & Virtual
- Translation of sprint outcomes into presentations, concepts, prototypes, and videos
- Brand positioning and activation platforms
- Corporate communications platforms
Case Studies:
Brand incubation
Leverage our brand incubation capabilities to accelerate your next new brand.
Overview:
We know what it takes to create brands because we make them and pass the hard-earned knowledge to you. Our Start-Ups help us test the waters and experience first-hand how emerging cultural shifts can inspire a fresh approach to creating and launching new brands and products.
Outputs:
- Define new brand opportunities that resonate with under-served cultural movements
- Brand creation and design
- Product development & prototyping
- Market readiness road maps & launch platforms
