Developing a Cultural Playbook & Plan of Action
Client: A mid-sized, social-first fashion and lifestyle brand approached nouvôt to explore what’s next for their audience over the coming 18 months. They were experiencing:
Declining engagement with current social content formats.
A content-to-commerce journey that felt “flat” despite investment.
Pressure from leadership to be more culturally relevant vs. bandwidth burnout in the team trying to chase every micro-trend.
Industry: Fashion & Lifestyle
Challenge: The brand had plenty of data, but no clear cultural compass to help them prioritise ideas or investments. They needed:
A lens on relevant cultural shifts that would actually matter to their specific audience.
Clear, practical actions for integrating these shifts into product, marketing, and experiences.
Internal alignment on why certain moves were worth making — and how to execute.
Approach: We developed a Cultural Playbook — a set of three themed, easily digestible 10-page decks, each translating cultural signals into strategy and execution.
Step 1: Cultural Signals Mapping
Identified 12 macro-to-micro cultural shifts through desk research, interviews, and social listening.
Mapped each against audience values, competitive activity, and category context.
Step 2: Behavioural Lens
Analysed how these shifts were already showing up in audience behaviour (purchase patterns, media habits, community spaces).
Used systems thinking to connect shifts across product, content, retail, and brand partnerships.
Step 3: Playbook Build
Each deck covered:
Signal Overview: What’s changing and why it matters (uniquely for them).
Opportunities: 2–3 tangible ways the brand could respond in an ownable manner.
Plan of Action: How to embed it into marketing, product, and community touchpoints.
Results:
Strategic focus: Reduced chasing of irrelevant trends by 60% supporting team health and morale.
Campaign engagement: +25% average engagement on launches tied to playbook opportunities.
Internal alignment: Marketing, product, and retail teams using the same cultural lens to prioritise work.
Key Takeaways:
Digestible, actionable format: 10-page decks kept the strategy clear and implementable.
Behaviour-first approach: Anchored in what their audience was already doing.
Systems thinking: Ensured ideas worked across the whole brand ecosystem, not just for one team.