Diageo Creates Cross-Industry, AI-Enabled 'Think Party' to Decode Consumer Trends
Diageo, the beverage alcohol company behind Johnnie Walker, Don Julio Tequila and Guinness, has launched a cross-industry initiative designed to identify and track the evolution of consumer trends.
Dubbed “The Think Party,” the effort brings together insights from Diageo, Kantar, Pinterest, Tinder, Google, Unilever, Pepsi Lipton (a PepsiCo-Unilever joint venture) and Kraft Heinz to analyze the future of socialization.
Alberto Romano, Diageo’s head of futures and culture planning, told P2PI sibling brand Consumer Goods Technology that the project uses a three-tiered approach. The company began with its proprietary Foresight System, which scans cultural signals and consumer behaviors to generate hypotheses.
"Then we overlaid external trend reports, consumer studies and cultural journalism to give us global breadth," Romano said, adding that generative AI serves as an accelerator that helps the team synthesize, cluster and digest thousands of data points into meaningful patterns.
“Foresight gave us the foundation, external sources gave us scale, and AI gave us the speed and clarity to see weak signals before they went mainstream,” Romano added.
The group blends strategic foresight, deep horizon scanning and quantitative analysis that can help consumer goods companies better understand key social trends and how they can better respond to shifts in behavior.
The Findings
The coalition released its first set of insights, with more expected later this fall. Among them are:
- Smaller, tighter circles: Friendship groups are shrinking but becoming more intentional, with a focus on quality over quantity and a strong desire for belonging, which is increasingly found in interest-based communities and fandoms.
- Curated connections: Socializing has become more curated and mindful. It's shifting toward hyper-planned events and “smart partying” with non-alcoholic options to balance fun and wellness.
- Evolving spaces: The locations and motivations for connection are changing. Consumers are gravitating toward micro-celebrations and alternative venues such as social saunas and gaming cafes.
“One of the biggest unlocks was seeing how our consumer occasion framework is expanding,” Romano said. “People aren’t just ‘going out for a drink’ anymore — they’re socializing in new ways, from creative workshops and gaming marathons to wellness-infused raves and micro-milestone celebrations."
"This expansion helps us spot new demand spaces where our brands can meet consumers differently — building products that match not only what people drink, but why and how they gather,” he added.
Diageo expects socializing trends to become increasingly intentional, inventive, expanded, amplified and balanced.
Cross-Industry Collaboration
Romano noted that the coalition allows members to share insights across industries — including retail, food, tech and lifestyle — and access consumer data they wouldn’t typically see within their own categories.
“That’s why ‘The Think Party’ was born as a cross-industry cultural lab,” he said. “It started with a simple conversation over cocktails, but grew into a coalition of partners committed to decoding the future of socializing together. Collaboration gives us sharper foresight and, ultimately, helps us design drinks, experiences and ecosystems that reflect real life, not siloed categories.”
This article first ran on P2PI sibling brand, CGT.
