Built to decide context - so you can show up when it counts
The challenge: A global personal care brand wanted to revisit its understanding of how women really engage with cleansing products. But a traditional U&A wouldn't cut it. They needed to go beyond claimed usage - to see the truth of how products were being used, chosen, and experienced in real-life bathrooms, and uncover opportunities for claims, innovation and portfolio strategy.
Our solution: We ran an IRL Audit™ - our AI-powered visual ethnography tool - analysing thousands of real bathroom photos submitted by women across the US. We decoded physical environments, product cues, pack formats, brand adjacencies, rituals and routines. Then we layered it with rich quant data and AI moderated qual at scale to bridge the say-do gap and build deeper model of needs, behaviours and decision-drivers.
Our discoveries: We uncovered distinct emotional and functional roles cleansing plays - from quick efficiency to ritualised self-care. Some formats were winning silently, while others had outlived their promise. We identified product gaps, claims that lacked meaning, and adjacencies that shaped perception and usage.
What it enabled: The work is now a strategic toolkit - still used across the brand team to guide innovation planning, pack and claims development, and portfolio optimisation. It turned classic U&A into a live source of cultural and commercial advantage.
Want to bring your category to life - literally?
Selling More by Mapping the Moment
A global anime brand wanted to drive merch sales - but first needed to understand what nudged fans from interest to action. We mapped the fandom journey using passive digital tracking, survey data and behavioural cues to decode when fans buy, why they hesitate, and what nudges them over the line.
We identified the trigger points that matter - and built a sharp, moment-based strategy that turned intention into action.
Want to turn friction into conversion?
Making Cereal Mean More
A global food brand wanted to bring emotional relevance back to cereal. We unpacked the morning routines of families and reframed the role of the cereal across life stages and life moments - from comfort to chaos, from connection to coping.
The insights reshaped how the brand thinks about occasion, need-state and meaning - and inspired a new, more human way to talk about cereal without always talking about cereal.
Want to matter in the moments that count?