NEW YORK, MAY 15, 2024 – System1, The Creative Effectiveness Platform, discovered the summer’s most desired new beverage innovations and they’re ripe with flavor. System1’s new Test Your Innovation platform measures consumers’ emotional responses to predict the commercial success of new products, taglines, brand characters, logos, and more. With its validated Star Rating system, Test Your Innovation provides a clear measure of in-market potential using a 1.0 to 5.9-Star scale.
System1 tested six summertime beverages from quick service restaurants with Test Your Innovation to understand the types and intensity of emotions that the ideas evoke in consumers. Sonic’s Orange Cloudsicle Slush Float performed the strongest, with Taco Bell’s Agua Refrescas as a runner up. Findings include:
- Sonic’s Orange Cloudsicle Slush Float excited and resonated the most with consumers. The sweet and tangy beverage received an ‘Exceptional’ Star Rating of 5.2. More than half of consumers (57%) felt happiness and the product also elicited the highest levels of emotional intensity. For Share Trading, 66% of consumers indicated that they would probably buy shares in the idea and quickly made that decision in under seven seconds.
- Taco Bell Agua Refrescas ranked second. The elevated take on Mexico’s aguas frescas received a ‘Strong’ Star Rating of 4.2. Emotion was rooted in Happiness for 51% of consumers. Share Trading performed similarly as Sonic’s innovation with 65% of consumers indicating they would probably buy shares in the idea with a trade time just over seven seconds.
- Appeal to the senses. Many consumers noted that color and “tried and true” flavor profiles are what influenced their positive emotional reactions.
- Fruity and fresh takes on classics perform best with consumers. Both innovations from Sonic and Taco Bell are refreshed takes on classics, orange creamsicle ice cream and aguas frescas, suggesting that consumers enjoy nostalgic yet reimaged libations. This showcases what System1 calls “Fluent Innovation,” or the principle that new ideas should feel 80% familiar and 20% new to drive commercial success.
In addition to detailing the types and intensity of emotions that consumers feel about ideas, Test Your Innovation offers reasons for emotion, main advantages, suggestions on how to improve the idea, a price sensitivity meter, implicit brand attributes and more. Additionally, users can benchmark performance across a vast database of over 54,000 ideas and test with specific target audiences in addition to a nationally representative sample.
The Star Rating is derived from how ideas perform on Emotional Response, Share Trading indicators and Decision Speed:
- Emotional Pull: Measured by System1’s FaceTrace® tool, Emotional Pull gauges the emotional response to ideas, indicating their potential to resonate with consumers. The happier people feel, the better an idea will sell in the market. In addition to the types of emotions, Test Your Innovation also measures the intensity of feelings like happiness, surprise, disgust and contempt.
- Share Trading: This metric predicts market success by assessing whether respondents would “Probably Buy” or sell shares in each idea, providing valuable insights into consumer behavior and preferences.
- Decision Speed: Decision speed in the trading game measures how easy an idea is to understand and the likelihood of being chosen. Fast ideas receive positive weighting, while slower ideas are penalized, offering a nuanced understanding of consumer engagement.
Jon Evans, Chief Customer Officer, System1 said, “Emotion is the key to unlocking whether an idea has commercial potential because purchasing decisions are largely driven by how we feel. It’s why we designed Test Your Innovation to deliver emotional response insights to brands. The platform not only predicts the success of ideas, but helps organizations further improve their concepts before launching so they can grow profits and market share.Test Your Innovation fosters confident decision-making for brands and unlocks unparalleled creative effectiveness to propel them towards the path to purchase.
