Diageo Experience Portals

The purpose of the engagement with Diageo was to drive the strategy to create in-store experience portals with the goal of engaging and upselling consumers. The Diageo Experience Portals (DxP) consist of an always-on hardware and software platform that provides interactive consumer engagements both in-store and off-premises, with remote maintenance capabilities through a content management system (CMS).

The Diageo DxP was positioned as a flagship point of interaction in various participating retail stores, featuring bespoke on-site touch-less hardware (kiosks) that interface with users’ mobile devices. The objective was to create an experience rooted in first-person research and Diageo insights to offer valuable personalized engagements, product recommendations, and rewards that are fun, valuable, and memorable, promoting ever-evolving dialogues with consumers.

Secondary components to the core experience included envisioning post-DxP engagement opportunities via a consumer’s mobile device once they’ve left the physical store, aiming to continue engagement and encourage repeat DxP usage through promotions and discounts.

Defining the DxP experience involved a detailed strategy centered on experience design best practices. I led the effort to develop a phased approach to the ground-up design of the portal, mobile device interactions, and remote management system. Exploratory research included extensive customer studies, aligning with Diageo to define and deliver comprehensive KPIs, OKRs, user journeys, and empathy mapping.

Subsequently, I facilitated collaborative sessions using various Hyper Island frameworks, including How Might We Questions, Rapid Research, and 90-Minute Prototypes, to drive conceptual design and shape the proposed DxP experience, determining the best path to monetization opportunities (direct and indirect) for Diageo.

These activities enabled the delivery of a focused customer journey and MVP experience, centered on five key pillars: awareness through interactive hosts, consideration through second-screen browsing, service (incentives & recommendations), post-service gamification, and advocacy/sharing.

Deliverables

The final deliverables for the DxP focused on providing the experience for three primary buckets: the physical kiosk, mobile interface, and CMS (Content Management System).

The consumer experience utilized a rewards system, personalized drink recipe recommendations, promotional content, exclusive access to local events, and micro-moments of elevation.

Consequently, this provided Diageo with a path to promote its products through an always-on physical presence in-store and to help keep Diageo at the forefront as a leader/innovator in the world of alcoholic beverages. Intangible benefits of the DxP included giving shoppers another reason to return to the retail store and provided Diageo with a unique entry point for consumer data capture.