Andrew Barazza, Author at CACI

The power of Commercial Mixed Modelling in FMCG brand activation.

Posted on: 12 May 2025

Building on the data-driven revolution

In our last piece, we examined how data has become indispensable to successful brand activation within the FMCG industry. As brands grapple with intensifying competition, shifting consumer behaviours, and tighter marketing budgets, one thing has become clear: data-driven insights aren’t just helpful, they’re essential.

Mobility and demographic data have already proven their worth in helping FMCG brands enhance precision targeting and campaign execution. But despite these advances, a fundamental challenge remains attributing success. Many FMCG leaders continue to invest heavily in brand activations, yet struggle to confidently answer the question, “What’s actually driving impact?” This is where Commercial Mixed Modelling (CMM) steps in as a transformational solution.

What is CMM and why does it matter for FMCG leaders?

CMM is a sophisticated analytical approach that blends multiple data sources to evaluate marketing effectiveness across a variety of channels and activities. Unlike traditional attribution models, which can falter in the face of complex, multi-touchpoint campaigns, CMM offers a holistic view. It considers how different factors, both controllable (e.g., media spend, promotions) and uncontrollable (e.g., seasonality, economic conditions) interact to influence outcomes such as sales, brand awareness, or loyalty.

For FMCG brands, where activations are rarely isolated events and often coincide with in-store promotions, retailer initiatives, or national campaigns, CMM provides the clarity needed to truly understand what’s working and why.

Addressing core challenges in FMCG brand activation

CMM directly tackles some of the most pressing issues faced by FMCG marketers today:

Attributing impact with precision

FMCG activations often form part of a wider marketing ecosystem, running alongside digital ads, trade promotions, and in-store merchandising. CMM enables marketers to untangle this web, isolating the effects of specific activations and understanding their contribution to brand and commercial outcomes, whether that’s increased footfall, improved sentiment, or uplift in sales.

Integrating diverse data for better decisions

Through the integration of sales performance data, mobility patterns (understood as aggregated, anonymised consumer movement trends), demographic profiles, retailer-level data, and external influences such as weather or inflation, CMM offers a multi-layered understanding of campaign effectiveness. This enables evidence-led planning and removes the guesswork from decision-making.

Optimising future campaigns for ROI

With the pressure to do more with less, FMCG brands need certainty that their activation investments will deliver. CMM highlights not just what worked, but where diminishing returns begin to set in, helping avoid oversaturation and refine budget allocation. By identifying the channels, formats, and regions that generate the strongest return, brands can maximise every pound spent.

Unlocking further value through scenario simulation and segmentation

One of the most powerful aspects of CMM is its ability to simulate potential future scenarios. This allows FMCG brands to explore “what-if” situations, such as reallocating spend between digital and experiential or launching activations in a different retailer network, before committing budgets. These simulations go beyond mere optimisation and support strategic foresight.

Additionally, CMM supports multi-level modelling. This means performance can be assessed not just in aggregate, but across segments such as:

Retailer chains (e.g. how does an activation perform in Tesco vs. Sainsbury’s?)
Geographic regions (e.g. urban vs. rural engagement)
Product types (e.g. impulse snacks vs. household essentials)

Such granularity helps marketers fine-tune activations for maximum relevance and resonance with their audience.

Transforming FMCG brand activation with CMM

For FMCG brands, the integration of CMM into brand activation strategies is not just a step forward, it’s a game changer. By enabling detailed impact attribution, uncovering insights at multiple levels, and offering predictive simulations, CMM elevates brand activations from tactical campaigns to strategic growth levers.

Whether you’re determining the true uplift from a sampling campaign, planning activations across national retailers, or seeking to avoid overspend through better budget control, CMM gives you the confidence to act with clarity.

Read our short infographic to learn how CACI’s Commercial Mix Modelling can transform your business strategy.

Ready to take your activations further?

Our FMCG experts are here to help you unlock the full potential of data-driven brand engagement. Get in touch today to discover how CMM can transform your next campaign into a measurable success.

Why high-quality data is the secret ingredient for DTC subscription success

Posted on: 1 May 2025

The direct-to-consumer (DTC) subscription space has experienced remarkable growth in recent years, with brands such as Huel, HelloFresh, Beauty Pie and Whoop becoming household names. The appeal is clear, convenience, personalisation, and a regular stream of products delivered directly to the customer’s door.

But as the market expands, so too does the competition. New brands are launching constantly, each offering their own take on the subscription model. In this crowded space, standing out and staying relevant has never been more important.

One asset continues to distinguish the leaders from the rest: data. And not just any data, but high-quality, well-structured, actionable data, paired with smart analytics and insight-driven strategies. For DTC subscription brands, the ability to understand and act on customer data can be the difference between long-term growth and slow decline.

The data advantage in a competitive market

DTC subscription models naturally generate rich pools of customer data. Every order, preference, skipped delivery or cancellation helps to build a clearer picture of who your customers are and how they behave.

This wealth of data is a significant advantage, but only if it’s properly harnessed. When collected, cleaned and analysed, it can power everything from personalised communications to churn prevention and sustainable growth. Without it, brands are essentially flying blind in a market where insight is everything.

Retention: Knowing your customers, keeping your customers

Retention is the cornerstone of subscription success. Acquiring new customers is just the beginning, keeping them engaged and subscribed is where the real value lies.

But customer loyalty is fragile. Understanding why subscribers leave is critical. According to the 2024 State of Subscription Commerce Industry Outlook,

38% of consumers cancel a subscription due to financial pressures,
37.9% do so because they no longer want the service, and
22.2% say the price is no longer justified.

With this knowledge, brands can adopt a more proactive approach to retention:

Segment your audience to understand who your loyal advocates are, who is at risk, and who may need re-engaging.
Predictive analytics can help flag early signs of churn, such as skipped deliveries or changes in usage.
Personalised re-engagement tactics, based on prior behaviours and preferences — can help win customers back with relevant offers, reminders, or tailored product suggestions.

Retention isn’t just about keeping a customer on a plan — it’s about continuously proving your value in ways that resonate personally.

Personalisation: Meeting customer expectations every step of the way

Today’s consumers expect more than a generic experience. Personalisation has become a baseline requirement. A 2024 Recurly report found that 74% of consumers cite personalisation as one of the top reasons for subscribing.

That means understanding who your customers are, what they care about, and how they want to engage. Personalisation is no longer a “nice to have”, it’s a driver of acquisition, engagement and loyalty.

To personalise effectively, brands must:

Know which messages resonate with specific customer segments.
Understand if some groups are more motivated by sustainability, while others care more about value for money.
Adapt product recommendations and content based on past behaviour and preferences.

When brands show they truly understand their customers, they foster deeper connections — and that translates into longer-term relationships.

Growth: Finding your next customers

Growth in the subscription space doesn’t mean casting a wide net and hoping for the best. The most successful DTC brands take a targeted approach, using their existing customer data to find lookalike audiences with a high likelihood to convert.

By profiling your existing customer base, you can uncover the traits, behaviours and preferences that define your best customers.
These insights allow you to find new audiences that mirror these key characteristics, creating highly efficient acquisition campaigns that target the right people, not just any people.
Understanding why your customers buy from you also allows you to refine your value proposition, ensuring it’s aligned with what matters most to your target audience.

With rich data and actionable insights, growth becomes more predictable, more efficient and more sustainable.

Aligning with customer values

Modern consumers are increasingly values driven. For many, sustainability is no longer optional, it’s expected. A 2023 survey by Loop Subscriptions found that 73% of consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable products.

For DTC brands, this presents an opportunity to connect more deeply with customers by:

Highlighting sustainability efforts in communications.
Offering eco-friendly product options or packaging.
Tailoring messaging for customers who value ethical practices.

Sustainability isn’t just good for the planet — it’s good for retention.

Data as a competitive edge

In such a fast-moving and competitive sector, the brands that succeed will be those that treat data as a strategic asset, not just an operational by-product.

It’s not just about having data — it’s about ensuring it’s high-quality, well-structured, enriched, and analysed in a way that powers smarter decisions across acquisition, retention and personalisation.

DTC subscription businesses have an inherent data advantage. Those who embrace this, invest in it, and apply the right analytical tools will not only understand their customers better — they’ll also build more engaging experiences, stronger retention strategies and smarter growth plans.

Data isn’t just numbers on a screen — it’s the blueprint for competitive advantage.

Want to discover how your subscription business can turn data into a competitive advantage?

Speak to CACI’s data science experts today — we’ll help you unlock the insights that drive growth.

How to use GenAI to ask better questions & improve results

Posted on: 24 April 2025

GenAI has forced its way into many peoples’ minds over the past few years, partly due to its incredible ability to answer natural language questions, ease of use and quality of replies. However, it’s still a tool that’s limited by the person using it and needs care in use. I’ve chosen a light-hearted example to examine how simply improving prompt engineering can yield better results.

Impact of using GenAI to ask the right questions

It’s five years now since lockdown hit and it seemed quizzes became a key (and sometimes only) part of peoples’ social lives. I remember being part of at least three weekly quizzes during those spring lockdown months as everyone stepped up their efforts to see each other on their laptop screens and scrabbled around to find someone with a good enough Zoom licence to allow longer than 20 minutes per call. They were a great way to have fun while staying isolated, but there was always the dread when it was your week to write the quiz and you had to research questions that weren’t too easy or too difficult. How much better would it have been if we had the likes of ChatGPT and CoPilot for our quarantine quizzes? Just how good are these exciting new tools at writing a perfect pub quiz?

Discussions about what makes a perfect quiz could take as long as a quiz itself, so for the purposes of this blog, I’ll stick to a simple and achievable definition. Across the 20 questions I’m going to ask for, there should be a mix of subjects and a range of difficulties. For subject range, I’ll categorise each question into its closest Trivial Pursuit category (Geography, Entertainment, History, Art & Literature, Science & Nature, and Sports & Leisure). I’ll also classify each question into a difficulty category based on how hard it is for a pub quiz environment– while not an exact science, it’ll be a good estimate of how hard the quiz is.

“Can you write me a pub quiz of twenty questions on a range of general knowledge topics please?”

Firstly, I ask ChatGPT to write me a twenty-question quiz. It came up with the following range of questions:

A good first attempt, but not particularly varied in category of question or difficulty. A wrong answer is also a blot for this first attempt. Many questions are geography based, three of which are linked to Japan. I’ve also had a lot of these in pub quizzes I’ve attended in the last year so I would suspect that this is drawn from a relatively small pool of questions for a basic request.

A perfect pub quiz needs more variation than this.

“Can you make it a bit more difficult and split into these 6 topics: Science & Nature; Arts & Literature; Geography; History; Entertainment; Sports & Games”

This is a much harder quiz, perhaps with too many tricky questions to make an engaging and entertaining evening in a pub. Some of the answers are wrong, or at least contestable enough based on different online sources to be the sort that a diligent question-master would want to avoid. It also hasn’t stuck to the original twenty question prompt. Let’s have one more try:

“Some of these are a bit too tricky. I’d like the quiz to be entertaining and engaging without being too easy or difficult. Can you try another set of twenty questions please, still split by the same categories?”

This is much better and a great framework for a quiz. While this seems like a trivial (pun-intended) and light-hearted exercise, it acts as a great example of GenAI and how best to use it.

Outcomes that businesses incorporating GenAI can expect

AI is a tool that can save huge amounts of time and effort and quickly expand the potential of its user. However, it’s still a tool that needs human input to get the best results. There’s a risk of getting the same results as everyone else, where sometimes more nuance and differentiation is needed. Every business offers a different proposition every customer presents a different need and it’s important to pick up on that subtlety. Effective and intelligent prompt engineering gives back much more effective and intelligent answers.

The thing that makes a great quiz evening is not the presence of questions, but how they’re delivered and how entertaining and how varied they are. GenAI rids us of the tedious work of researching the questions, but it still needs a careful, experienced hand to optimise the solution it delivers.

How CACI can help

If GenAI has created more headache than help for you or your business, CACI can support your understanding of it and ensure it is used in the most effective way. To learn more about how we can support you, contact us today.

The data-driven revolution behind successful brand activation

Posted on: 21 February 2025

In an increasingly competitive marketplace, brand reputation is more critical than ever for FMCG companies. With consumers more discerning and connected than ever before, the way your brand engages with your target audiences can make or break your standing in the market. In this environment, brand activation has emerged as a vital strategy for manufacturers seeking to create memorable experiences and drive consumer engagement. Yet, to truly excel in this area, leveraging data is no longer optional—it’s essential.

At its core, brand activation is about bringing your brand to life through engaging, experiential interactions. It goes beyond traditional advertising by encouraging consumers to interact with your brand in tangible ways, creating experiences that resonate on a personal level. For FMCG brands, this could mean everything from product sample handouts, sampling events to interactive digital campaigns, all designed to forge a strong, lasting connection with consumers. For example, companies like Red Bull have consistently set the benchmark in innovative brand activations, while other industry leaders such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi have also excelled in creating immersive and engaging consumer experiences. The ultimate goal is to boost brand awareness, foster loyalty, and drive sales, all while ensuring that every touchpoint contributes to the overall brand reputation.

The urgency of connecting with consumers.

In today’s fast-paced and ever-evolving market, FMCG brands face a host of challenges that make effective brand activation more critical than ever:

Heightened competition: With an abundance of products on the shelves, FMCG brands must distinguish themselves not just through quality but also by creating unique, engaging consumer experiences.
Consumer expectations: Modern consumers expect personalised and relevant interactions. A generic or misaligned brand activation can quickly erode trust and damage brand reputation.
Economic pressures: With tighter budgets and a growing demand for accountability, every pound spent on marketing must deliver measurable returns. Executing brand activation with a high return on investment (ROI) is a key priority.

Overcoming modern brand engagement challenges

While the potential rewards of a well-executed brand activation strategy are significant, the path to success is often fraught with challenges:

Inadequate targeting: Consider the scenario of distributing 100 free cans of a new beverage. The question isn’t just about handing them out—it’s about knowing where to distribute them and identifying the most receptive audience. Without precise targeting, even the most well-planned activation can miss its mark.
Limited data insights: Traditional methods of planning activations may rely heavily on assumptions or broad demographic data, which can lead to suboptimal decisions. The lack of granular, location-based and behavioural data means that opportunities to engage the right consumers at the right time may be overlooked.
Measuring impact: Beyond execution, one of the most complex challenges is measuring the success of brand activation initiatives. Determining which elements of the activation drive consumer behaviour and ultimately contribute to sales is essential for optimising future campaigns.

Data driven opportunities

The solution lies in harnessing the power of data to inform every stage of the brand activation process. For FMCG brands, the integration of mobility data, to understand footfall, and demographic insights, to target the right audience, offers a transformative way to enhance targeting and execution:

Precision targeting: Mobility data provides a real-time snapshot of where consumers are congregating. By combining this with detailed demographic information, brands can identify hotspots for activations, ensuring that efforts like free sampling are targeted in areas with the highest potential engagement.
Enhanced planning: Data-driven insights allow brands to move beyond traditional assumptions. With access to granular information, marketers can design activations that are tailored to the behaviours and preferences of their target audiences, leading to more efficient resource allocation and a higher ROI.

Pioneering the next frontier in brand activation

The fusion of data and creative brand activation represents a new era for FMCG growth. By embracing data-driven strategies, brands can overcome traditional challenges and elevate their activations to new heights. This approach not only helps in targeting the right audiences but also in precisely measuring success, ensuring that every activation drives meaningful engagement and solid ROI.

At a time when brand reputation can significantly influence consumer decisions, leveraging data isn’t just an option—it’s a necessity for FMCG brands that want to thrive in a competitive landscape.

Connect with our FMCG experts

If you’re ready to enhance your brand activations through data-driven insights, why not connect with our team of FMCG experts? Let’s explore how leveraging mobility data & demographic insights can take your brand activation strategy to the next level.

How Allwyn uses CACI’s territory & route optimisation tools to successfully expand their field sales team & stores

Posted on: 21 January 2025

Background

Allwyn officially took over as operator of the UK National Lottery at the beginning of 2024. As part of this major acquisition, Allwyn has grown its sales team to deliver key initiatives as part of the new licence. To successfully do so required a two-fold objective:

Ensure a smooth running of visits for existing Retail Sales Executives covering over
40,000 stores on a quarterly basis.
Grow the size of the team to 155 Retail Sales Executives to increase the quantity and
quality of visits.

CACI had established a long-standing relationship with the previous operator of the National Lottery and had a proven track record of delivering projects for them. Allwyn therefore knew it could turn to CACI as a trusted partner who would understand the work required to help meet their objectives.

Challenge

New territories and routes needed to be designed to quickly set the wheels in motion.
As an expanded field team, Allwyn had to ensure that these routes and territories were optimal to meet deadlines and mitigate any disruption from the previous operator’s handover

Solution

Allwyn commissioned CACI to undertake a headcount analysis and territory optimisation project using CACI’s territory optimisation tool, InSite FieldForce. CACI went on to create optimal routing solutions for Allwyn, using their cloud-based route optimisation software, CallSmart Web, to ensure the following:

A correctly sized team would be in place for their expanded network of over
40,000 stores
Ideal locations to recruit new Retail Sales Executives would be known
Territories are optimised to balance work evenly, maximising each Retail Sales Executive’s potential
The number of scheduled visits would be maximised and driving time minimised.

With their team of experienced field marketing optimisation experts, CACI was able to bolster the above objectives for Allwyn. Allwyn has also licenced CallSmart Web, which enables them to self-serve and optimise routes once personnel are in place. Ongoing training and support for Allwyn is provided by CACI’s experts during this transitory period as they move towards more software usage

Benefits

Following CACI’s headcount analysis and territory optimisation work, Allwyn’s Retail Sales Executives have been working with balanced workloads, ensuring they are neither overworked nor underutilised, with an average utilisation (including commute) of 86%. This helps the business understand whether there is sufficient time remaining for additional tasks such as prospecting, admin and more.

The territory optimisation work has enabled Retail Sales Executives to spend 79% of their time with customers, and less time driving. This is in addition to achieving their target number of visits per day.

The fair distribution of workload has also meant that CallSmart Web is able to produce the best possible schedules for all of Allwyn’s 155 Retail Sales Executives, leading to 100% of scheduled visits across a 10-week call cycle.

The combination of using CACI’s expertise via consultancy and software solutions has allowed Allwyn to successfully go live with its expanded field sales team of 155 Retail Sales Executives while continuing to ensure a smooth running of all visits across their store universe of over 40,000 outlets. This highlights the importance of a tailored approach, as well as the countless benefits of optimised and efficient territories as well as visit schedules. CACI continues to be on hand to provide technical expertise and support to ensure a continued success for this partnership.

Find out more

Please view the full customer story here. If you want to learn more or have any questions please get in touch with us.

Maximising customer engagement marketing with AI

Posted on: 9 January 2025

How Adobe, Braze, Bloomreach, Optimove and CACI lead the way together

In today’s fast-paced digital world, customer engagement has evolved into a sophisticated science that requires real-time analysis and personalised interactions across multiple channels. Businesses are increasingly leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) to optimise these processes, ensuring that customers receive relevant, timely, and personalised communication at scale.

Leading the charge in AI-driven customer engagement are platforms such as Adobe, Braze, Bloomreach, and Optimove. Each provides distinct features to make customer engagement more efficient and impactful. At CACI, we work alongside these providers, helping organisations across all sectors to integrate and fully leverage the capabilities of these technologies.

Navigating the latest AI features, ensuring seamless data integration, and delivering hyper-personalisation can quickly become overwhelming—especially when marketing teams are already stretched. Knowing where to begin, or how best to align new capabilities with business objectives, often proves challenging without expert guidance.

That’s why below I share an overview of how these leading platforms are incorporating AI to shape the future of customer marketing—and how our team of MarTech experts can support you in effectively putting these powerful features into action.

Adobe: The power of Predictive Analytics with Sensei

Adobe’s suite of marketing solutions, particularly within the Adobe Experience Cloud, utilises AI to enhance customer journeys. At the heart of this is Adobe Sensei, Adobe’s AI and machine learning framework. Sensei powers several predictive analytics and personalisation features across Adobe’s platforms.

CACI can help you integrate Adobe Sensei with your existing marketing activities, enabling you to forecast customer behaviour, tailor content, and automate workflows. The result is a more personalised experience at scale for your customers, backed by the Adobe ecosystem’s powerful insights.

Braze: Real-Time optimisation with Intelligence Suite

Braze’s Intelligence Suite is a collection of AI-driven tools designed to make marketing more adaptive and responsive. Its Intelligent Channel feature automatically selects the best communication method based on customer behaviour, while Intelligent Timing determines the optimal time for engagement.

We can support you in adopting Braze by helping you configure Braze’s AI tools to match specific business objectives, ensuring that you maximise the return on investment in Braze. We will work closely with you to configure Braze’s AI tools, ensuring your multi-channel campaigns connect with customers in the right place, at the right time.

Bloomreach: Hyper-Personalisation with Bloomreach

Bloomreach combines commerce and marketing in one platform, with Bloomreach Engagement a leading player in AI-driven personalisation. Bloomreach Engagement in tandem with the commerce capabilities of Discovery continuously analyses customer intent and behaviour to adjust content and recommendations in real time.

We can assist you in seamlessly deploying Bloomreach Engagement, ensuring that the AI engine is fine-tuned to your unique needs. Through key data integrations we can enable you to create highly personalised digital experiences that improve conversion rates and customer engagement, leveraging Bloomreach’s AI to achieve fast, tangible results.

Optimove: Customer Data Platform meets AI with Optibot

Optimove’s Optibot is an AI-powered recommendation engine that helps marketers optimise their engagement strategies by providing actionable insights from customer data. It allows companies to predict customer behaviour, like churn or purchase intent, and adjust marketing tactics accordingly.

We can help you integrate Optimove and ensure you’re utilising Optibot’s AI-driven capabilities to their fullest potential. Through data analytics support and customer journey optimisation, we enable your organisation to fine-tune your outreach, engage customers more effectively, and enhance customer lifetime value through intelligent, data-driven marketing.

How CACI can help you to effectively apply AI tools

While each of these platforms offers powerful AI tools, integrating them into your organisation’s marketing efforts requires deep technical know-how and strategic insight.

We provide end-to-end support if you are looking to implement AI-driven marketing technologies. With a focus on data integration, customer journey mapping, and multi-channel engagement strategies, our team of experts will ensure that these AI tools align with your specific objectives and business model. Whether it’s implementing AI-powered personalisation, automating decision-making processes, or scaling customer communications, we’re here tohelp you get the most out of your investment in AI.

By partnering with us, you gain access to a wealth of knowledge in deploying these technologies effectively, along with ongoing support to continuously optimise AI-driven marketing initiatives. We empower your organisation to move beyond manual processes, enabling you to focus on strategic growth while delivering personalised, relevant customer experiences at scale.

How can you get ahead?

The future of customer engagement marketing lies in AI, and companies like Adobe, Braze, Bloomreach and Optimove are leading the charge with innovative tools that make marketing more efficient and impactful.

CACI’s role is to help you harness these platforms effectively, tailoring them to your specific objectives and ensuring you capitalise on AI’s potential for personalisation, automation, and meaningful customer connections.

Whether you’re already using AI features in your existing MarTech stack or considering new solutions, we can guide you towards maximum return on your technology spend. If you’d like to explore your options or unlock more value from your current set-up, please get in touch—our team is here to help you navigate the next steps.

Which Klepierre retail centres in France would benefit the most from Gymshark?

Posted on: 17 December 2024

In our previous blog in this two-part series, we uncovered why France would be a good option for a Gymshark European market expansion and key considerations the brand could take for a successful expansion. Today, we’ll assess which Klepierre retail centres in these high-potential French cities would benefit most from housing a Gymshark in their centre as part of a hypothetical Gymshark French market expansion.

How Retail Footprint Europe could help Klepierre understand which retail centres would benefit from a Gymshark store

While there are many centres in France that would be suitable to bring Gymshark into based on the best shopper profile correlation in a hypothetical Gymshark market expansion, Retail Footprint Europe, CACI’s machine learning catchment model defining catchments for thousands of destinations, has helped determine three particular Klepierre centres that would ultimately become a good fit. With key Gymshark shoppers comprising Affluent Singles & Couples, Affluent Young Families, Middle Income Singles and Student Life profiles from Acorn, CACI’s geodemographic segmentation, these insights were cross-referenced against Retail Footprint Europe insights to equip the business with granular insights and tangible actions to help landlords deduce which centres would work and why.

Finally, to gain insight into actual footfall and compare actual versus expected footfall against these Gymshark profiles and conclude which centres presented opportunities to attract more of Gymshark’s core shoppers, Mobility Data was leveraged.

Saint-Lazare Klepierre in Paris

According to our findings, one of the Klepierre centres that would benefit most from the presence of a Gymshark would be the Saint-Lazare in the Haussmann-Opera retail area. This centre is expected to attract the highest potential of Gymshark’s core shoppers at 43%. Saint-Lazare also has the most affluent profile at an expected 34%. However, the area is home to lower levels of Student Life profiles, with just 1% expected to visit the centre.

Paris houses a strong proportion of premium retailers that align with Gymshark’s offering, with this particular Klepierre centre featuring a blend of competitors and complementary retailers, already housing the likes of Adidas and Nike, which both have similar offerings to Gymshark. Its shopper demographic also lends itself to those who are likely to either be existing Gymshark customers or will become ones once the brand enters the physical market.

Retail Footprint Europe insights for Saint-Lazare Klepierre

The Haussman-Opera retail area holds the third largest clothing and footwear store presence across France, with many premium and broader retailers and a higher percentage of affluent and younger consumers. Our findings also show that people travel well outside of Paris into this area to shop, making it a fantastic location to quickly grow brand reach and exposure.

Acorn insights for Saint-Lazare Klepierre

Saint-Lazare appears to perform the most in line with Gymshark’s core shoppers, with 44% originating from its expected profile according to our Mobility Data findings. This data provides insight on actual footfall and illustrates the comparison between actual and expected versus the Gymshark profile to understand if a centre had an opportunity to attract more of Gymshark’s core shoppers.

As a more premium brand, Gymshark achieves particularly high indexes for affluent consumers, but also performs well with aspiring, younger and urban consumers within the Gymshark core shopper profiles outlined by Acorn. Compared to fellow sportswear brand, Adidas, the brand has a much broader appeal and can perform in-line with their average consumers, while Gymshark performs significantly weaker in these segments.

Centre Commercial Centre Bourse Klepierre in Marseille

Retail Footprint Europe insights for Centre Commercial Centre Bourse Klepierre

Centre Commercial Centre Bourse would be a strong runner up to Paris thanks to its high-performing site in terms of its Clothing and Footwear Score and its high proportion of premium retailers that align with Gymshark’s offering, according to our Retail Footprint Europe findings. However, this centre has a rather low proportion of a young and affluent shopper demographic compared to Saint-Lazare in Paris, which could see the brand running the risk of not attracting the right shoppers upon opening.

Acorn insights for Centre Commercial Centre Bourse Klepierre

Another defining factor behind Centre Commercial Centre Bourse being a suitable location for a French market expansion is due to the city’s likelihood of having the highest proportion of Affluent Young Families (15%) compared to the other locations. According to Acorn, Centre Commercial Centre Bourse in particular attracts 36% of Gymshark’s core shoppers.

Mobility Data insights for Centre Commercial Centre Bourse Klepierre

Marseille sees a 14pp higher proportion of footfall from Gymshark’s shoppers than expected, driven by the centre attracting significantly more Affluent Singles and Couples than expected, according to Mobility Data findings. Centre Commercial Centre Bourse highly reflects Gymshark’s core shoppers (both in expected and actual footfall) and has strong proportions across the different core shopper groups, while Paris is much more concentrated on a singular Affluent group.

This centre ranks 9th out of over 10,000 retail centres for its Clothing & Footwear Score and has a strong premium retail score, even higher than that of Paris. Marseille also only has one competitor in its centre, meaning the addition of another sportswear brand wouldn’t saturate the market, but shows there is demand for this category in the area.

Les Passages Pasteur Klepierre in Besancon

Retail Footprint Europe insights for Les Passages Pasteur Klepierre

Surprisingly, despite this smaller size of this city and inevitably lesser likelihood of Gymshark opening here, it is actually home to a high level of one of Gymshark’s core shopper demographics, Student Life, as seen in our Retail Footprint Europe data. As with Centre Commercial Centre Bourse in Marseilles, Les Passages Pasteur has a strong Clothing and Footwear offering, a substantial percentage of which are classed as premium retail. While Besancon doesn’t have any direct competitor or complimentary brands, this could be navigated with the help of clever marketing strategies.

Acorn insights for Les Passages Pasteur Klepierre

Les Passages Pasteur has a much younger profile that comprises 31% of Gymshark’s core shoppers, with 12% of its catchment expected to be Student Life, based on findings from Acorn. Unlike Centre Commercial Centre Bourse, Les Passages Pasteur has a high percentage of young and affluent shoppers (even higher than Paris), which would ensure that Gymshark was opening to a shopper demographic most likely to shop with the brand. However, the city has the least affluent profile out of the three.

Mobility Data insights for Les Passages Pasteur Klepierre

Les Passages Pasteur appears to attract the most significant amount of Gymshark’s shoppers in real footfall, with 53% of its actual footfall being from Gymshark core shoppers, as seen in our Mobility Data findings. This is because the centre is significantly over-achieving in attracting Student Life (+21pp versus expectation), showing the centre resonates very well with younger shoppers.

Using the data, which Klepierre centre would best perform in France?

With the aforementioned data to consider, the strongest contender for a successful French market expansion for Gymshark would likely come from Centre Commercial Centre Bourse Klepierre. This is due to its strong representation of Gymshark’s core shoppers, both in expected and actual footfall, as well as the proportions across the different core shopper groups compared to the other two cities and centres being more concentrated on a singular group (e.g. Affluent groups in Paris and Student Life in Besancon). With only one competitor in the Centre Commercial Centre Bourse Klepierre, the addition of another sportswear brand won’t oversaturate the market. Instead, it’d reiterate the demand for this category in the area.

Ready to Find Your Next Market?

With insights from Retail Footprint Europe, pinpoint the best locations for your brand’s growth across Europe.

Why France would best suit a Gymshark European market expansion

Posted on: 5 December 2024

A new sportswear retailer emerges on the international stage.

Gymshark, a fast-growing activewear brand, has been rapidly expanding its global reach and brand presence as it ventures into the world of brick and mortar. Having recently opened new stores in the UK (Stratford City), the Middle East (Dubai) and a pop-up concept in New York City, this brand with a prominent social media and predominately online presence is now rapidly infiltrating physical retail.

Despite not yet launching across wider Europe, it’s only a matter of time before these markets will be ventured into via physical pop-ups and stores. Selecting the right locations out of countless options may be a daunting task that comes with the territory, however. So, once the time comes for Gymshark to decide which locations to expand into that will maximise their increasing growing brand recognition and ROI, how should they effectively go about it?

In this two-part blog series, we’ll walk you through a hypothetical European market expansion for Gymshark in France, sharing how the brand can use data to accelerate and enhance their international store network strategies. Three French cities that demonstrate viable market expansion potential based on insights taken from CACI datasets and segmentation tools will be focused on, as well as key takeaways that Gymshark (or brands in a similar position) could consider when it comes to international market expansion.

How France was identified as an optimal location for a Gymshark European expansion

CACI possesses a complete universe of defined retail areas to consider, a detailed understanding of different types of consumers and where they shop. This enables us to guide a brand like Gymshark to maximise success and value from go-to-market strategy and launch through to expanding into broader brand recognition and market share capture. With this in mind, and with Gymshark expanding into physical and new regions, we investigated European markets that might fit their need should they decide to expand into Europe.

With Gymshark already a brand on CACI’s Brand Dimensions, a dataset tracking hundreds of the UK’s most popular and emerging brands to reveal spend, sales and average transaction value insights, key groups in French Acorn could also be identified. Key Acorn groups were identified by using Brand Dimensions data followed by selecting key Acorn groups within French Acorn data, which correlated accordingly. In France alone there are over 10,000 retail areas, each with differing levels of existing premium clothing shops and competitors, types of customers, footfall, population and spend.

By comparing this to the expected view from Retail Footprint Europe, we could identify locations that were currently failing to engage Gymshark’s key shoppers but had the opportunity to. From these collective findings, we were able to conclude the following three French locations that could benefit from the opening of Gymshark: Paris, Marseille and Besancon.

Why Paris would perform well in a Gymshark France expansion

According to our findings, Paris presents the highest performance potential and should be a primary focus for Gymshark. Aside from being the biggest city in France– an obvious bonus for any brand– Paris presents the best shopper demographic, a strong array of existing premium retailers and the ability to attract the relevant demographic groups that would align to Gymshark’s brand identity of being a premium retailer with similar retailers already in the centre.

Retail Footprint Europe enables the use of transactional data across brands to develop an understanding of the typical Gymshark shopper, brand positioning and establishing criteria for the most suitable locations for Gymshark to consider regarding new store openings. Considering these criteria, Paris ranked incredibly high on Clothing and Footwear, with the Haussmann-Opera retail area Klepierre centre ranking among the top three across France.

Why Marseille would perform well in a Gymshark France expansion

Marseille presents itself as another viable option as our findings show it to be the middle ground between high affluence profiles and younger, ‘student life’ populations found in other larger, prominent French cities. The city’s strong clothing and footwear and high proportion of premium retailers also contributes to its performance potential. However, its lower ‘young and affluent’ target demographic runs a potential risk.

Why Besancon would perform well in a Gymshark France expansion

Despite Besancon presenting itself as more of a curveball, the granularity of our Retail Footprint findings demonstrate that in spite of its smaller size and lesser known location, the city is home to a strong clothing and retail offering including premium retailers, a high percentage of young and affluent shoppers and is overall more likely to attract the right shoppers.

Key takeaways that Gymshark can consider for a French market expansion

These aforementioned insights would enable Gymshark to better understand their long-term audience capture of sites through physical retail and experiment with different formats and experiential offerings. Combining Retail Footprint data across Europe with demographic, transactional, brand alignment and footfall data can ultimately be used to shape an evolving store network strategy, and the national view further solidifies an understanding of the entire retail landscape of France. Through these insights, Gymshark would be able to accelerate store openings with greater confidence and success if or when they decide to expand into Europe.

Ready to Find Your Next Market?

With insights from Retail Footprint Europe, pinpoint the best locations for your brand’s growth across Europe.

Stay tuned for next blog in this two-part series, where we’ll assess which Klepierre centres in these high-performing potential French cities could perform well in a Gymshark French market expansion.

Key trends shaping data strategy: Insights from Big Data LDN and Snowflake DCWT 2024

Posted on: 4 November 2024

In recent months, I have had the opportunity to represent CACI at two major data conferences—Big Data London and Snowflake’s Data Cloud World Tour in London. CACI took a prominent role at both events, including serving as a Black Diamond Partner at the Snowflake tour. I spoke at both events, sharing insights from our latest projects and discussing the strategic shifts shaping the data landscape.

Both conferences were electric with activity, demonstrating the strength and vibrancy of our data community. The CACI booth saw a steady stream of professionals eager to discuss our perspectives on the future of data and technology, as well as how we’re tackling current trends and challenges across industries. These interactions highlighted three key themes resonating within the industry today.

Snowflake functionality including sharing and Container Apps

One of the questions I was asked a lot at the events was how organisations can use native data sharing functionality with Snowflake more widely. Snowflake has progressively made this easier to do, by enabling direct warehouse-to-warehouse sharing of data. Moreover, the launch of Container Apps has meant that organisations can also consolidate more processing within Snowflake, rather than handing off to processes outside of where they store this data. Increasingly, Snowflake adopters are seeking to consolidate more of their data technology and data within one common platform. This obviously increases efficiency with data processing and makes your data processing estate easier to manage.

I was inundated with questions about how we can support organisations in making more from their Snowflake estate, from supporting on enabling direct sharing and private cleanrooms, to migrating workloads to native Snowflake apps. It’s clear that this will be a core strategic push for many organisations already on Snowflake, but also a driving force behind many decisions to migrate to Snowflake.

The rise of data Self-Serve

It was quite staggering to see how many exhibitors at Big Data London were software vendors selling self service data insight platforms, many of them powered by GenAI. The desire to give non-coders access to query data held within a warehouse/lake etc is nothing new, there has forever been this requirement. Hitherto, that access has been slightly hamstrung by the capabilities of the tools aiming to give that capability, often giving a reductive or clunky user experience. However, this sector has grown momentum recently, driven by increased data volume and by the increased desire for more data by “non-technical” people.

It’s clear that GenAI, in part, has given renewed energy to this sector, and we’ll see these type of natural language tools start to really challenge the incumbent BI tools.
One of the omnipresent challenges of the data industry has been how to seamlessly give access to data, held within data platforms, and easily give access to people not proficient in writing code. It is one of the areas that has held back true democratisation of data, and limited initiatives to create thoroughbred “data-driven” organisations. If GenAI can help by removing these barriers to data accessibility, then we’ll enter a new age of data use, and organisations will really be able to start fully leveraging all the data that they have at their disposal.

Importance of Observability

In 2024, observability—essentially, next-level monitoring—is becoming indispensable. We find ourselves in a place where our data estates are becoming ever more expansive and expensive. The volume and cardinality of data that is being collected and processed is ever increasing, contributing to a degradation of transparency about what is happening on our data platforms. Moreover, the now ubiquitous consumption pricing model has meant that there is now increasingly need for better observability, to enable widespread transparency on what processes are running, their efficiency, how much compute they are using, and how much they cost.

We’ll see an increasing push to streamline data processing operations and to create better clarity on what processes are running and how much they are costing the business. Additionally, as data operations but ever more business critical, there will be additional scrutiny their performance and health.
In summary, these three trends—expanded Snowflake capabilities, the advancement of self-service data tools, and enhanced observability—reflect a broader industry shift towards greater accessibility, efficiency, and cost transparency in data management. As we continue to innovate and adapt, CACI is positioned to support organisations in navigating these changes and unlocking the full potential of their data assets. Together, these insights underscore a vibrant future where data is not only accessible but fully optimised to drive meaningful business outcomes.

Curious to explore how these trends could shape your organisation’s data strategy? Let’s start a conversation about unlocking the full potential of your data estate with CACI. Reach out today to discover more.

Selecting the right customer engagement tool from Adobe

Posted on: 13 May 2024

At CACI, we have been working with the Adobe Experience Cloud for over 12 years, helping clients maximise the value they get from their investment in the platform, delivering award winning outcomes and producing significant revenue streams as a result.

We’re proud to be an Adobe Gold Partner and are widely recognised as a thought leader and specialist, especially around Adobe’s campaign and journey orchestration offerings.

In this series we dive into the Adobe upgrade pathway and discover the pros and cons of each version, key upgrade considerations, and enable you to decide which one suits your needs best.

How will businesses be affected by Adobe’s latest upgrade pathway?

Following Adobe’s recent announcement that Adobe Campaign v8 (ACv8) and Adobe Journey Optimiser (AJO) represent the future of their marketing automation and journey orchestration offering, businesses currently relying on older versions of Adobe Campaign Classic and Standard are strongly encouraged to transition to either AJO or ACv8.

For B2B clients, Marketo Engage remains Adobe’s core marketing automation solution, alongside a newly released B2B editions of the ‘Real-Time Customer Data Platform’ and ‘Adobe Journey Optimizer’

While both AJO and ACv8 boast robust features, the process of selecting which one is most appropriate for your needs requires careful consideration to ensure you are setup to enable long-term customer success and CRM scalability.

With change comes opportunities for businesses to evolve their CRM programmes with the new capabilities of the Adobe Tech stack, such as utilising new channels.

So, how can businesses decide which of these tools will be right for them?

Face-off: Adobe Campaign v7 vs v8

The console version of Adobe Campaign v8 is very similar to v7. Until now, the primary reason to migrate would be to take advantage of faster data processing and integrations with other Adobe products.

The new web UI however will be attractive to lots of AC customers, offering a much more marketer-friendly interface for less technical users, and will appeal to clients currently using the web-based Adobe Campaign Standard.

One consideration with a move to v8 is that it includes the additional layer of support provided through Adobe’s new Managed Cloud Service.

Is Adobe Campaign v8 right for my business?

In our opinion, v8 is an incredibly versatile tool and is perfect for delivering complex campaigns at scale for businesses. Those who are on ACS are in for a significant upgrade given the additional capability and scope for customisation offered by the tool.

Comparative to ACS, Adobe Campaign is a much more customisable and extensible tool and can be leveraged to meet very bespoke requirements as a result. As per ACS, at its heart is a fully relational and extendable data model. However, unlike ACS, you are not limited to a single set of rules governing sending requirements and this can be bespoke to different targeting requirements. For example, having different rules for Newsletters, automated campaigns, and other different types of marketing communications.

Some examples of custom implementations of Adobe Campaign v8 completed by CACI include:

A custom integration with OPTA to incorporate live football results and statistics to personalise a football results newsletter for a publisher based on a customer’s favourite team.
Custom integration with an external mobile marketing platform to trigger push notifications and in-app messages from campaigns orchestrated within Adobe Campaign.
Creation of a custom web app interface for a gaming client to allow their local venue managers to create basic campaigns to their local customers.

One consideration of Adobe Campaign v8 is it does not offer a RESTful API. However, its SOAP API is extensive and can be used for any required implementation, such as data integration, triggering workflows or sending transactional messages via the Message Centre.

Introducing Real-time journey orchestration with AJO

Adobe Campaign is built on a traditional relational database. While this fully extendable data model makes it well-suited for advanced batch segmentation and personalisation campaigns, it is not as well suited to real-time, journey-based orchestration use cases that some newer customer engagement platforms support.

Adobe’s answer for these use cases is its Adobe Journey Optimizer (AJO) platform, built on Adobe Experience Platform. AJO offers the ability to build 1:1 journey-based, triggered experiences at scale. E.g. For anyone wanting to build seamless omni-channel personalised experiences at scale then AJO is the platform to consider

Additionally, with support for web and mobile in-app messaging alongside DM, SMS, push and email, the platform makes for a compelling choice for clients looking to leverage these channels and respond to real-time, streaming data. AJO can also leverage the existing data in AEP to enrich the incoming event and further personalise the customer journey.

Is AJO right for my business?

We believe Adobe Journey Optimiser (AJO) stands out as an excellent real-time journey orchestration platform. It being underpinned by AEP means that it can leverage much more complex data structures than alternative customer engagement platforms, so it will no doubt appeal to clients facing more complex data needs, especially those who have not yet invested in a CDP and will therefore benefit from other products within the AEP stable.

Many clients may still need some of the more traditional features that come from an enterprise grade campaign management platform, however, especially if they need to orchestrate complex batch campaigns (e.g. insurance renewals). A combination of Adobe Campaign and AJO will therefore appeal to clients looking for that perfect blend of traditional batch and real-time triggered orchestrated journeys. The improved Campaign -> AEP integrations that also come with AC v8 make this combination much easier to manage.

CACI are Gold Adobe partners and have hands on experience planning and migrating into the Adobe Experience Cloud.

Download our whitepaper series to explore the Adobe upgrade pathway and discover the pros and cons of each version, key upgrade considerations, and enable yourself to decide which one suits your needs best.

Should you need independent help when planning your Adobe Campaign upgrade, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with our experts.