SparkOptimus helps Pepsi Lipton develop new consumer venture

Pepsi Lipton continuously seeks ways to ‘disrupt rather than be disrupted’ by innovating beyond its core. Recently this saw the global beverages giant launch a direct-to-consumer (D2C) venture, working together with SparkOptimus across the journey, from strategy through to delivery. 

One of the consumer trends Pepsi Lipton is looking to play into is in the domain of healthy lifestyle and sustainability. As part of its objectives in this segment, the multinational launched a strategic venture to develop and market a new product: a personalised drinks box consisting of ‘healthy’ products. 

SparkOptimus was brought on board to guide Pepsi Lipton during this journey, which kicked off with a strategic analysis on the market potential, including shedding light on consumer demand and target groups. The consultants also conducted an assessment on the financial outlook for the personalised drinks box, and validated the business case’s riskiest assumptions.

With the groundwork laid down, SparkOptimus then took full ownership on delivering results, hiring and managing all sub­contractors, including operations, IT development, branding, and growth hacking. 

What consumers really want

To achieve a quick ‘proof of concept’ and learn what consumers really wanted, SparkOptimus built a recommendation engine to be able to offer individual selections of drinks based on (personal) data. From a selection of hundreds of drinks, the system creates a unique box of 12 drinks based on consumer input via a simple survey (e.g. health goals, flavours, and dietary constraints). 

Based on the incoming consumer feedback and funnel data, the survey and the recommendation flow are continuously updated and improved. This has led into a massive jump in key metrics, including the spot-on factor (meaning that consumers did not switch the items recommended to them) which improved by 30% within just two months, and the conversion rate boomed by 100% in the same period. 

Meanwhile, the average feedback rating on recommended products jumped from 2.5 to 4.2 stars out of 5. 

In support of the proposition, SparkOptimus supported the launch of a fully functioning direct-to-consumer platform within two months, attracting hundreds of paying customers in the first weeks after launch. The platform gathered valuable data-driven insights on consumer preferences, assortment, and new drink formats, delivering back insights to Pepsi Lipton to fuel a continuous improvement cycle. 

Commenting on the collaboration with SparkOptimus, Pepsi Lipton’s CMO Frank Haresnape said: “SparkOptimus helped us in shaping the D2C proposition needed to tap into various disruptive trends from ideation to realisation, and impressively went from MVP design to go-live in just 2 months.”