Diageo’s very un-corporate culture.

Tuned in to culture on the street, nimble in response – is that the big business we know?

Diageo, a global drinks giant, called on Added Value London to help switch on their responses to the world outside.

Added Value created External Radar, a vibrant digital platform where up-to-date cultural data is accessible to everyone in Diageo – a bank of exciting cultural trends and innovations.

To find relevant data, the Added Value team first agreed areas of key interest and then conducted a ‘cultural immersion’. They scanned real and virtual culture for emerging expressions and behaviour that could shape Diageo brand initiatives.

The process sounds high-flown – semiotic analysis, grouping of patterns and clusters, building of cultural codes – but the result was practical and transforming.

An instance is using External Radar as a source of inspiration to the Smirnoff team for innovation and concept development.

“The external radar tool has enabled our busy marketing teams to feel like they are always connected to culture”, Diageo Consumer Planning Director Helen Blass said. “It’s hard to instil a creative culture into a big business but this tool really helped us do that.”