Celebrating World Creativity and Innovation Day - Our Top Innovation Projects
As an innovation and consumer research agency for the food and drink industry, we've had the pleasure of working on some truly amazing projects. Today, in honour of World Creativity & Innovation Day, we're here to share some of our most exciting success stories with you. From cutting-edge product development, to dreaming up drool-worthy menus, we've done it all.Join us as we take a journey through some of our greatest hits!
Kelly’s Market for KellyDeli
Ready, set, taco 'bout an exciting project!KellyDeli came to us looking for a tasty Mexican menu to launch under their new Kelly's Market food market concept in Tesco - a vibrant grab-and-go food offer bringing delicious hot and cold food from all corners of the world!We got to work and presented a variety of menu options before perfecting the chosen dishes in our development kitchen. We sourced the packaging and ingredients, and captured delicious photos for the brand. Our top priority was creating a menu that would satisfy customers' cravings while keeping things simple and affordable for Kelly Deli's operations.The first Kelly’s Market is now open in Wokingham Tesco, with a further nine pilot stores set to open across 2023!
Swizzels Squash
We loved collaborating with Princes and Swizzels on a project that truly hit the sweet spot - the first-ever Swizzels squash range!After spotting a gap in the market for a sweet confectionery range of squash which would appeal to the whole family, we developed the product concept and conducted consumer research with our fabulous community, who gave us the seal of approval.The result? A range of irresistible, low-calorie squash in iconic flavours that tick all the boxes - taste, convenience, and value. The cherry (or should we say Sherbet) on top? No added sugar, artificial colourings or flavours. Just pure and delicious refreshment in every sip!
OSU Drinking Vinegars
Mizkan presented us with a unique challenge: to concoct a range of no ABV, alcohol replacement drinks using OSU drinking vinegars as a base.Following ideation sessions around classic Japanese ingredients and flavours coupled with flavours UK audiences understand, we undertook iterative product development at our kitchen in Waterloo.The key challenge during the project was balancing the acidity, sweetness and ‘burn’ in the drink ensuring not only a pleasant drinking experience but an authentic replacement for an alcoholic drink!
Princes Street Food Kebabs
We helped Princes make their debut in the frozen aisle with a new kebab range, Princes Street Food.The 100% chicken breast marinated kebabs come in three flavours - Indian Tandoori Chargrilled Chicken Kebabs, Korean Style BBQ Chargrilled Chicken Kebabs and Malaysian Style Satay Chargrilled Chicken Kebabs.Not only are they delicious, but they're also environmentally friendly with fully recyclable packaging, and meet the HFSS standards whilst being high in protein!With the frozen poultry market dominated by breaded and battered products, the NPD helped Princes stand out by offering variety and convenience, whilst bringing a range of international flavours to the dinner table.
Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shops
The Ben & Jerry’s team came to us looking for some instagrammable, delicious concepts to promote their Scoop Shops.To meet their objectives around fun and innovation, we created Phish and Chips - a summer special for their Soho Scoop shop, as well as the Ice Cream Doner Kebab, a German favourite, to launch their new Berlin Scoop Shop.And in celebration of World Vegan Month, we went all out with three signature serves to showcase Ben & Jerry’s amazing non-dairy flavours - an almond milk hot chocolate float, a popcorn toffee apple sundae and a biscoff caramel ice cream sandwich!
Princes Botanicals
We teamed up with Princes to help them enter the premium juice category with the launch of Princes Botanicals.We enlisted the help of our unique consumer community to gather in-home video diaries, allowing us to get up close and personal with target consumers and truly understand their product preferences and experiences with the new range. The results were overwhelmingly positive, with the juices gaining a high score and a purchase intent of up to 71%!Consumers were especially blown away by the Apple, Pineapple & Lemongrass flavour, describing it as "well-balanced" and "refreshing". But that's not all, our community also loved the packaging, describing it as "natural, simple but eye-catching".
Twix Ice Creams
Team Twix engaged us to prototype a series of concepts designed to evolve the Twix ice cream offering.We had a blast figuring out how to capture the iconic Twix eating experience in frozen form, testing out all sorts of textures and flavours to find the perfect combination. We spent hours baking, tempering chocolate, churning ice cream, and making caramel to craft six mouth-watering prototypes, which were presented to Twix stakeholders for testing.After incorporating some changes, we handed over the prototypes to real-life Twix fans for testing. Their opinions helped us fine-tune the recipes even further.Finally, we passed on our manufacturing briefs and amazing ice cream recipes to the Twix team to take the project to the next level!
Plot9
We helped Princes make a major move into plant-based by developing and launching a new brand, Plot9.In a bid to connect with younger, flexitarian audiences, the brand debuted with a trio of ambient meat-free meal pots - Thai-Style Chickpea Curry with Aromatic Rice, Rich Lentil Bolognese with Wholewheat Pasta, and Smoky Chipotle Bean Chilli with Long Grain Rice.Plot9 was developed to hero the vegetable after seeing the growth in demand for plant-based products and identifying a real opportunity to offer something unique in this rapidly evolving and competitive sector. So many products focus on replicating meat, which isn’t necessarily what a flexitarian consumer always wants, and often doesn’t deliver on taste or texture!We wanted to challenge the industry with a veg-first attitude that makes plants the champion of every dish, for ‘zero-compromise’ convenient meat-free meals that still pack a punch when it comes to flavour and quality.
Need support with your internal innovation and NPD capabilities?
At FIS Group, we understand the challenges of launching something new and innovative in today’s competitive market. Whether you are looking to launch a new restaurant concept, or develop a menu, dark kitchen or retail product, our bespoke innovation solutions will help you succeed.Reach out today and let’s get talking!