Semiotics and Cultural Insights 2025

09.00 Registration & refreshments

09.45 Welcome from the Chair

Gareth Lewis, Joint Managing Director, Space Doctors

10.00 Lunch on fire: how Co-op used semiotics to innovate new products & services

This case study shows how semiotics delighted Co-op with a burst of innovation. Co-op’s 10-year plan for the future of convenience retailing needed to be brought to life for consumers. Semiotics applied techniques for innovation to dozens of eating and shopping occasions – including the British worker’s weekday lunch. Now Co-op is newly equipped with a variety of food and shopping surprises to share on its journey to 2035.

Dr Rachel Lawes, Owner, Lawes Consulting
Joe Moran, Strategy Insight Manager, Co op

10.30 From Hollywood to holograms:  crystalizing ‘Joyful Extravagance’ for Swarovski

 Swarovski is rich in cultural association, accepted equally in the world of Chanel & Schiaparelli. When a brand is so universal, it needs a strong message. Swarovski have just that. Their platform, ‘Joyful Extravagance’, underpins everything they do.

 But what does ‘Joyful Extravagance’ mean?

This discussion will share how VERVE de-coded what ‘Joyful Extravagance’ means, with a focus on youth audiences in China & the US. Hear how a combination of commercial semiotics, ethnography & co-creation with leading-edge trend-setters, uncovered all the ways Joyful Extravagance manifests today; confidently pin-pointing the sweet centre where these two big ideas meet in the middle.

Meg Palmer, Associate Director - Semiotics, VERVE 

In conversation with

Laura Brazay, Strategic Intelligence Manager, Swarovski

11.00 Morning refreshments

11.30 Mapping the new pathways of premiumisation in the nutrition space: olive oil is the new caviar, butter is the new truffle!

Why are people in the UK hosting ‘tinned fish’ dinner parties?  Why are gen Z Americans taking out a third job to afford a Hailey Bieber smoothie from Erewhon? How are Mexicans ‘reclaiming heat’ in condiments, and why is little treat culture helping stressed Filipinos to find their ‘bawi balance’? 

Previously, premium narratives were price-led; expensive, serious, exclusive, and excluding. But today, premium is more about perceived value; thoughtful, relevant, aesthetic, and experiential. 

Hear how, together with Unilever, Quantum unpacked the new pathways of premium, using semiotics, cultural magpies, consumer communities and expert interviews. 

Rhonda Fontaine, Research Lead, Quantum Consumer Solutions
Alexandra Georgakopoulou, Global Consumer Market Insights, Unilever

12.00 Leveraging inflection points to drive beverage choices among gen Z consumers

The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) aimed to explore how critical life-moments - known as inflection points - lead to sustained behavioural change among gen Z. TCCC was particularly interested in understanding the specific triggers and cues present during these transformative moments, to shape marketing strategies that could influence gen Z's beverage choices at these key life junctures.

Space Doctors and TCCC collaborated on a comprehensive 360 degree research approach involving AI-powered analytics, in-depth interviews with gen Z consumers and semiotic analysis of the shifting cultural meaning of inflection points.

The outcome of this work was a set of actionable marketing strategies for beverage brands, designed to capitalise on these moments of transformation.

Gareth Lewis, Joint Managing Director, Space Doctors
Maheen Ansari, Global Senior Director Human Insights - Consumer Journey and Experiences, The Coca Cola Company

12.30 Lunch

13.45 What’s in a game? gamification, brands and the future of consumer culture

Join industry experts to explore the intersections between gaming and modern consumer culture. From understanding the rise of competitive gaming and virtual economies to the integration of gamification in non-gaming contexts such as e-commerce, education, and fitness, this session seeks to unpack the drivers behind consumer engagement with game-like elements in everyday life.

Hear real world examples of gamification campaigns. Gain insights into the psychological and cultural factors that make gamified experiences so compelling, exploring how brands can leverage these strategies to deepen customer loyalty, enhance product experiences, and increase market share.

Chaired by:

Paul Nesbitt, VP, Global Research and Insights, Condé Nast

Panel:

Emily Porter-Salmon, Director (Semiotics & Cultural Insight), Sign Salad
Adam Harris, Co-Founder, Gaggl (formerly Global Head, Brand Partnership Studio @ Twitch)
Ben Austwick, Senior Executive - Streaming and Gaming, Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity

14.15 Separated by a common language: how UK stories land in US culture

It’s increasingly challenging for UK?scripted TV to be commissioned and sold in the USA so BBC Studios and Craft set out to understand the opportunities for British scripted content in the USA,?to directly inform the kinds of programmes BBC Studios makes and invests in. Through a combination of a semiotic content analysis and qualitative research, they explored: 

• How Britishness is articulated in content and perceived by audiences
• The types of scripted shows US audiences want to watch
• How non-US content is perceived in the USA, and where British content fits in 
• What explains British hits and misses in the USA 

Konrad Collao, Founder Craft
Laurie Kearns, Insight Manager - Scripted, BBC Studios

14.45 Afternoon refreshments

15.15 Demonstrating the value of qual and semiotics to time pressed stakeholders

Summer is big for Boots. But creating fresh and distinctive messaging for such a broad product range and customer base is challenging. Additionally, busy stakeholders at Boots were used to quantitative script testing and the value of upfront qual wasn’t obvious.   

This paper will show how a leanly designed blend of semiotics and qual reasserted the power of qualitative insight and won over stakeholders. Hear how the project opened up creative possibilities of what summer can be and delivered a distinctive ad which drove significant ATV (average transaction value) and brand buzz.

Sarah Jay, Director, Acacia Avenue
Hannah Key, Insights Manager, Walgreens Boots Alliance

15.45 Semiotics & quant: leveraging semiotics to increase brand and offer awareness

Offers marketing in the consumer technology space is highly competitive. Samsung wanted to cut through the busy visual landscape in store, on TVCs, and in online marketing to improve conversion of its offer marketing.

This case study explores the semiotic toolkit Samsung and BRYTER developed for offers advertising and the semiotic principles that were subsequently used to manipulate Samsung adverts and generate key principles for creatives.

Examine the extent to which this approach has grown offer awareness amongst key customer groups (Gen Z, premium and flagship models seekers) and boosted research spend on pre-testing due to its impact.

Kishore Budha, Insights Director, BRYTER
Rupesh Patel, Head of Insights, Samsung

16.15 Blending semiotics and discourse analysis to understand changing representations of menopause over time

Despite menopause being in the media spotlight, many women still find it hard to talk about and are often left feeling misunderstood and disenfranchised. Issviva, a brand designed to help women with their menopause journey, wanted to find out whether it was speaking the right language to its customers.

This conversation will show how semiotic and discourse analysis were used to explore changing representations of menopause over time, and the language real women use to describe their lived experience. Hear how semiotics was applied to the existing brand lexicon to understand where Issviva sits in terms of signification, residual/dominant and emergent coding.

Dr Chloe Peacock, Associate Director, Magenta

In conversation with

Dr Jo Meredith, Associate Director, Magenta 
Charlotte Gulcimen Essity, Global Brand Manager, Issviva

16.45 Closing comments from the Chair

16.55 End of conference