Our Thinking

Productive Creativity in CPG Innovation – Testing to Validate, not Create
Why do poor performing ideas go through rounds and rounds of iterative testing, wasting time and money? Phil Norminton, VP of Insights & Partnerships explains how using objective data and relevant stimulus makes creativity productive.
17 - Mar - 23
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12 - May - 20
Navigating the Storm | Diverging Behaviors in Personal Care
Lockdown week 9. At this point I think we’ll all forgive each other if certain elements of our previously immaculate personal care regimes have slipped, with human contact limited to a slew of video calls (and Zoom’s “touch up” filter hides a multitude of imperfections).
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01 - May - 20
Navigating the Storm | Debunking the 'New Normal'
A panel discussion with Reckitt Benckiser and Black Swan Data.
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20 - Apr - 20
Navigating the Storm | Shifting Emotional & Functional Drivers in Skincare
Skin. It’s our largest organ and plays a vital role in protecting us from outside infection and disease. It’s no surprise that COVID-19 has contributed to an uptick in conversation around skincare (+141% over the past 4 weeks). It’s a multi-faceted conversation that points to a number of direct (hygienic) and indirect (Zoom vanity) implications.
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15 - Apr - 20
COVID-19 | Taking the Pulse of the nation
At Black Swan we set ourselves a simple, but ambitious goal: to ensure our clients never miss a trend. We use our cutting-edge data science and analytics teams to track and distil social conversations around some of the world’s biggest consumer categories – snacks, beverages, beauty and more – to surface those small innovations that we predict might just become the next big thing.
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12 - Apr - 20
Navigating the Storm | The Route Back for Airlines
Few industries have been as affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as Travel and Aviation. Almost immediately after the first diagnoses in China, large parts of the West limited or prohibited travel to the world’s second largest aviation market.
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08 - Apr - 20
Navigating the Storm | A resurgence for efficacy claims
As we come to terms with the artificial environment we find ourselves in, we anxiously await for some indication of how our world will be impacted in the longer-term future.
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02 - Apr - 20
A Beacon through the storm
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.
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26 - Mar - 20
Navigating the storm – objectivity in the COVID-19 crisis
When my fellow founder Hugo Amos suggested “Black Swan” as our company name, my first reaction was “that’s pretty bold mate, do you really think we can do that?”. Seven years later the world finds itself in the midst of the impact from an unprecedented Black Swan event; COVID-19.
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09 - Mar - 20
Careers
International Women’s Day | Pipeline Problems & Practical Tips
Supporting women earlier in their careers will fuel the pipeline for tomorrow. Discover Camilla Carson's practical tips to change the trajectory of your career, no matter the stage you're at.
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15 - Jan - 20
CES 2020 | Beyond the Robots
The biggest and boldest are sometimes overshadowed by the everyday delicate changes which make our busy lives that little bit easier.
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16 - Jul - 19
Beer and the Alcohol-Free Boom
While the name suggests zero percent alcohol, this isn't strictly true; the product term includes any beer with less than 0.5% alcohol content - so its effect is zero. The aim is to reproduce the taste of beer without its inebriating effects. Traditionally, an unvaried product type chiefly spanning lager, the ‘lo and no’ trend is now starting to impact other beer types, such as ales and wheat beers while improving non-alcoholic lager quality too.
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14 - Jul - 19
Cheers to Locally Sourced Beer
The Local Hype Today’s consumers are increasingly seeking out locally sourced products, regional foods and ingredients. Indeed for many, the ‘local’ label is a stronger pull than ‘organic’. Particularly within the craft beer and cider space, the influence of this trend is making an impact.
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