When you need the signal before the data catches up
Syndicated data tells you what has already happened. Real change in food and drink shows up first in conversation, search behaviour, social signal and editorial – often six to twelve months before it appears in the panel data the rest of the business is working from.
Social scraping and trends gives you that leading signal in a form you can actually use. We scan the sources where meaningful signal lives for food and drink, read it through a senior interpretive layer rather than an algorithm, and deliver it scoped around your category, your audience and the decisions it needs to inform – so you’re moving on early signals, not catching up on lagging ones.
It is not the right tool for every brief. If the question is about confirming a known behaviour with statistical evidence, you want quantitative work. If the question is about deep behavioural understanding in context, you want ethnography. If the question is about the broader category synthesis, you want immersion. We will tell you which on the scoping call.
One-off, rolling, or white label. We will scope around the brief.
The work flexes around the shape of the engagement. The three formats below are how clients most commonly commission it. The decision shapes what the work looks like, how it is delivered, and what it costs.
One-off signal report
A point-in-time trend and signal read scoped to a specific category, audience or question. Used most often at the start of an innovation cycle, before a strategy day, or to validate a specific hypothesis before commercial commitment. Typical turnaround: two to four weeks from brief to readout.
Rolling monitoring programme
Ongoing scanning at agreed cadence (typically monthly or quarterly), with regular reads delivered to the team in the rhythm they actually use. Used for continuous competitive monitoring, ongoing category watch, or post-launch tracking. Typical commitment: three to twelve months, with the option to extend or end at agreed review points.
White label delivery
Full curated signal work delivered under your brand (or no brand at all) for agencies, consultancies and corporate procurement teams who need the recommendation to land without our name attached. Transparent commercial arrangement. Full senior interpretive layer. Used widely by partner agencies and internal corporate teams.
Food and drink is all we do
We are not a generalist trend agency that takes the occasional food brief. Food and drink is the only sector we work in. Our senior team knows the categories, the consumers, the retailers and the constraints. Signal lands with people who get it on the first read, and recommendations come back framed for the people who actually have to make the decision.
That focus is why we work with 11 of the UK’s top 40 food and drink brands.
Other ways to decode the category
Social scraping is one tool in the broader Decode toolkit. Depending on the brief, one of these might be a better fit, or a stronger partner alongside the signal work.
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Consumer and Category Data Immersion
Structured deep-dives that immerse marketing, NPD, innovation and category teams in the category, consumer and the competitive landscape.
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Food Safaris & Competitor Review
A bespoke exploration of the markets, restaurants, retail aisles and overseas territories that are shaping your category
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Ethnography
Deep behavioural observation of how food and drink lives in real homes, real kitchens, real eating moments and real social contexts.
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Opportunity Mapping
Strategic mapping of where to play in food and drink.
View our case studies
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Chaiiwala
Chaiiwala needed to professionalise their product development process and rebuild their menu architecture to support a scaling QSR estate. FIS Group delivered a full operational audit, menu architecture rebuild, repositioned core items and a year-long LTO programme, through to launch day training with the senior operations team.
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Pizza Express
Pizza Express needed trend-led hero dishes for their Christmas 2024 and September seasonal launches. FIS Group delivered a two-phase innovation sprint from concept ideation through kitchen development to full supplier briefing specifications, with all menu items reaching restaurants nationwide on schedule.
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Valeo Foods
Valeo Foods needed to unlock new category opportunities through genuine retailer collaboration rather than conventional supplier presentations. FIS Group facilitated co-creation workshops with Sainsbury's, M&S and Tesco, generating a pipeline of sweet and snacking concepts built inside Valeo's development framework and ready for prototype presentation within months.
FAQs
A listening tool gives you the data; it does not tell you what it means. Our work combines a curated source set built specifically for food and drink (rather than a generic crawl) with senior interpretation that separates signal from noise. You can buy a listening tool off the shelf. You cannot buy senior specialist interpretation off the shelf.
Generic trend reports are written once and sold to many. Our work is curated, scoped and delivered for your specific category, audience and decision context. The trends that surface are the ones that matter for your brief, not the universal trends that appear in everyone else’s pipeline review.
Yes. The source set is curated specifically around your category, whether that is broad (premium ready meals, plant-based protein, premium coffee) or specific (kombucha, low-and-no, regional cuisine territories). Source curation is the first design decision and is built around the commercial scope of your brief.
Specialist food and drink publications (trade and consumer), professional communities and forums, retailer and operator news, consumer conversation in food-relevant spaces, search query data, cultural commentary, and where appropriate proprietary sources we have access to. We build the source set around the category, not against a fixed template.
A one-off signal report typically delivers in two to four weeks from brief to readout. A rolling monitoring programme starts inside two weeks and runs at the agreed cadence. White label work is scoped per engagement. We will give you a realistic timeline at proposal stage.
Yes. Rolling monitoring programmes run at agreed cadence (typically monthly or quarterly), with regular reads delivered to the team in the rhythm they actually use. Used most often for ongoing competitive monitoring, continuous category watch, and post-launch tracking. Typical commitment three to twelve months with review points.
Yes. White label is a transparent commercial arrangement available to agencies, consultancies and corporate procurement teams who need the work delivered without our brand attached. Full senior interpretive layer, your name (or no name) on the output. We agree the terms on the scoping call.
Senior food and drink specialists do the separating, not an algorithm. The senior team has spent enough time in the category to recognise what actually signals commercial change versus what is fleeting cultural noise, and the curated source set is already filtered to remove most of the noise that generic listening tools surface.
Yes. Competitor-focused and topic-focused programmes are common variants, particularly for clients monitoring a specific competitive move or tracking a specific emerging behaviour. Scope is agreed at the start and can be adjusted as the work runs if priorities shift.
Project-based for one-off work, retainer-based for rolling programmes, scoped per engagement for white label. The biggest cost drivers are the breadth of the source set, the cadence of monitoring and the depth of senior interpretation required. We will give you a clear, all-in quote at proposal stage with no hidden extras.
Need to see what is happening in your category before the data catches up?
Tell us what you are trying to understand or monitor, the decisions the work has to inform, and the timeline you are working to. We will tell you whether social scraping is the right tool, what commissioning shape makes sense, what the timeline looks like and what it will cost. Twenty minutes on a call. No qualifying call before the qualifying call.