Introducing our new COVID-19 Beacon reports.
Earlier this week we officially launched our Beacon trend reports, the first of our COVID-19 related suite of products.
The Beacon reports have been created in response to client requests about how they can stay connected to the consumer conversation with timely, category-specific insights that cut through the COVID-19 conjecture and opinion.
Beacon is designed to surface and prioritise shifts in attitudes and behaviour as well as signal emerging product trends. It gives brands a systematic, data-driven approach to spot tactical opportunities for quick-fire communications, content and product mix improvements.
But of even more value is that Beacon enables brands to see early signals that can determine whether their long-term growth and innovation strategies (developed pre-COVID-19) are growing in relevance and should continue to be developed. Alternatively, if disruptive trends are likely to sustain, then a different course of action can be considered. This enables brands to move forward with certainty and avoid any unnecessary pauses or wastage.
What’s delivered in a Beacon Report?
Beacon leverages Black Swan’s category-specific datasets and trend frameworks. Each dataset contains 2 years of passive, ‘no-questions’ big data from millions of publicly available conversations online. NLP technology aggregates conversations into thousands of distinct category topics, both known and unknown. We then contextualise topics by analysing how they are trending relative to each other, and how consumers connect and associate them, to understand what’s emerging in importance and why.
For Beacon we are using the same framework and methodology but tracking these ‘baselines’ on a daily basis to give brands the timely and accurate trend intelligence they need right now.
Each Beacon report contains three key elements:
1) The category view
A bottom-up, category-specific view of the top 80 product topics which are trending in the category. Not just restricted to COVID-19 topics, this allows brands to see the wider themes in conversation that are taking place right now and prioritise their relative importance.
Beacon ranks each trend by its growth over both the last 4 weeks and 12 months. This comparison allows brands to place what’s currently important in the context of what was driving conversation pre-COVID-19.
For example, in most categories the growth driver of Mental Health is only likely to strengthen in light of COVID-19, and therefore should be on the radar for both immediate and long-term activation.
2) The COVID-19 perspective
This is a ‘top-down’ view that queries the dataset to track the impact of COVID-19, surfacing the key topics and themes which consumers are associating with the pandemic.
The output of this section will give you an early warning of important developments in conversation and allow you to understand the specific impact and dynamics of COVID-19 in your category. E.g. Which benefits, products and ingredients are consumers associating with the pandemic, and why? How should the marketing and product mix be adapted to benefit consumers?
3) Key topics to watch
Comparing the bottom-up versus top-down approach allows us to identify 3 x key topics to watch in each report. In essence, these are the most important macro themes and behavioural changes in the category that should be considered as part of any ongoing marketing or tactical activity related to COVID-19.
Analysis of each key topic includes commentary on how it manifests in a number of related product trends and social media posts that illustrate the topic to stakeholders.
How can I get a Beacon report?
Right now, Beacon is being offered to clients in selected Food, Drink, Alcohol and Personal Care categories across key markets.
To get your hands on a Beacon report or find out more, please fill out the form at the bottom of
this page a we'll be in touch soon.
