Nielsen Top 25 Innovation Breakthrough 2019
Every year the team at Nielsen identify and celebrate ‘breakthrough innovations’ in each of their key markets.
To date, they have identified just 44 innovations worthy of the title breakthrough in Europe. So it’s a real thrill to see that one of the projects we worked on with our French team, has been picked as one of their Top 25 Innovation Breakthroughs of 2019!
Nielsen’s criteria for a successful innovation can come in many different forms. Some are disruptive game-changers, some have been launched to fend-off competitive pressure and others have been designed to tap into emerging consumer trends. They have all been chosen to recognise the innovation and growth they have brought to their respective categories.
Reinvigorating an Established Market Segment
Mars have been an established player within the ice-cream segment for over 25 years. Their entry into the market, with a range of highly disruptive products, had forced established players to raise their game and respond with added-value products of their own. However, over the decades the category had become increasingly commoditised. The time was right for another round of disruption.
The ‘Blockbuster’ project was initiated by Mars Ice-Cream’s French commercial team based in Steinbourg. The challenge was to:
- Radically rethink the whole business model
- Review and get ahead of emerging consumer and market trends
- Leverage the strengths of Mars’ best-loved brands
- Explore the potential for new formats to add-value to the consumer experience
And to do it all fast and cost effectively – with a view to bringing the first initiatives to market as quickly as possible!
Agile, Fast-Track Process
The project was led by our French team, but leveraged the moderation, conceptual and visualisation capabilities of the whole business. We used our agile insighting, trend-analysis, brainstorming, concepting and visualisation skills to generate a huge bank of ideas – then evolve and prioritise them in record time.
The first, highly-successful, launch into the French market has been M&M’s Batonnets – and it is this product that has so deservedly been celebrated as one of Nielsen’s European Breakthrough Innovations 2019
We are thrilled to have played our part in the creation of this breakthrough initiative. In the words of Mars’ Ice-Cream’s Commercial Director: “Couldn’t have done it without you David and Philip!”
