The challenge
Yoghurt is one of the most contested chillers in the supermarket, and standing still is not an option even for an established name.
Onken, one of the UK’s leading yoghurt brands, wanted support in creating an innovation pipeline for the next one to five years, bringing together trends and consumer insight to deliver concepts that would drive real value in the category. The brief was not for ideas in isolation, but for a structured pipeline: a view of what comes next, and next after that, all grounded in evidence.
What we did
Trend analysis prepared by thefoodpeople, qualitative research, an ideation workshop, concept crafting and rationalisation, and illustrations.
How we did it
Working with thefoodpeople, a leading food and beverage trend agency, we built the trends into both the pre-work and the design of the day itself, so attendees arrived provoked and inspired rather than cold. A workshop succeeds or fails before anyone enters the room, and the preparation here was deliberate.
Alongside the trend work, we held qualitative discussion groups with consumers to understand their needs and the barriers holding the category back. That pairing is important. Trends tell you where food culture is moving; consumers tell you what they will actually put in their basket. An innovation pipeline needs both.
On the day, our team facilitated throughout, keeping the energy high and the thinking sharp, ensuring creative solutions were crafted across the different trend platforms rather than clustering around the obvious ones. By the end of the day, ten big platforms had been identified.
The workshop output then went through crafting and rationalisation, with the concepts refined, illustrated and prioritised into an innovation pipeline structured across four brand opportunities, giving Onken a clear, sequenced view of where to focus development effort and why.
What it delivered
Ten big platforms generated in a single day, refined into a prioritised innovation pipeline across four brand opportunities, with each concept grounded in trend evidence and consumer insight. Onken came away with a one-to-five-year view of category-driving innovation, and a team, including colleagues from overseas, energised by the process that produced it.
In their words
“We wanted to say thank you for the trends and ideation workshop. It was a great session; we’ve had lots of positive feedback from the team especially our colleagues from overseas. It was professional & fun; we particularly enjoyed the provocation and inspiration of the trends download as well as your expertise in developing themes into opportunities. The output was very strong, you supported us in developing the opportunity platforms out into tangible ideas.”
Mathilde van Roon, Head of Marketing, Emmi UK
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