Case Study
Espresso Martini: cultural landscape AnALYSIS
A Cultural Landscape
In partnership with Brandwatch, a leading AI-enabled social listening tool.
What is a cultural landscape?
Brands don't "tap into" culture; they participate. They respond to needs with an innovative solution. Ultimately, to be culturally relevant is to view campaigns as services for the brand audience.
The cultural landscape is a map of the forces behind a trend, revealing the unmet need driving interest and how brands should respond.
the Challenge
A major alcohol brand needed to regain relevance in a shrinking category. While overall drinking was declining, the espresso martini was exploding: double-digit sales growth.
The brand sought a way to enter this world without pretending to own it
The Approach
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Tracking conversations, trends, and audience behavior to understand organic brand associations.
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Surfacing internal perspectives, legacy, and priorities to clarify brand identity.
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Translating insights into a clear, actionable growth strategy anchored in cultural relevance.
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Bringing insights into action through workshops that explore strategic options and test alignment with cultural opportunities.
The Process
2+ years’ worth of data | 10M+ mentions | All major platforms, including Instagram, X/Twitter, Reddit, TikTok.
Two years of social data revealed emerging forces that will continue to grow over the next year. Just the right amount of time to bring the idea to life.
We focused the work around "hunting" for category needs, mapping them across occasions, moods, and modes of consumption, tracking conversations and audience behavior to find the occasions, people, and needs that define interest. Unmet needs are entry points for the brand.
To make sure the brand message resonated, we used semiotic analysis, mapping cultural signals onto trends and territories. Behind every territory, there is one unified driver and need.
We collaborated with PR and creative partners in an innovation workshop to ensure the feasibility of each of the ideas.
The Insight
Gen Z needs social permission to break a rule; in this case, you can’t drink coffee after 4 p.m., but the espresso martini is a night drink, not a brunch item; nighttime conversations were twice as frequent as daytime mentions.
The Impact
By decoding the real cultural meaning of the espresso martini, the brand gained a clear, credible route into a new night ritual. The strategy centered on relevance, not dominance, participating in a cultural phenomenon without distorting it.