Case Study
Redefining First Insight as Retail’s Predictive Intelligence Platform
At a Glance
- Client
-
First Insight
- Company Type
- SaaS
- Headquarters
-
USA - Campaign Period
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18Months
Ongoing
The Outcome
The Value We Created
-
148
Earned placements across business, retail, CPG, beauty and tech media
-
26
Healthcare, medtech, AI and business outlets
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55
Placements from one private label report, including CNN and NBC News
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40
Placements in grocery, CPG, beauty and home goods outlets
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8 Days
From the CEO announcement to showing up in AI engine answers
-
4 of 4
AI engines now describe First Insight as the intelligence behind retail decisions
The Challenge
First Insight has spent nearly two decades helping retailers like Under Armour, Family Dollar and Boden predict which products customers will buy and what they’ll pay. Its press presence didn’t match that track record. Coverage was inconsistent, and reporters usually called it a survey or consumer research company, which left out the predictive AI at the center of the platform. First Insight also wanted to grow into CPG, grocery, beauty and home goods, with new AI products on the way.
Where CVM Came In
We built First Insight’s media program around one idea: it predicts what customers will buy before retailers commit to inventory. Every data report, product launch, byline and executive interview carried that message, aimed at the markets First Insight wanted to win, from grocery and beauty trades to business, AI and marketing press.
Here’s How We Did It
We repositioned First Insight as a predictive customer intelligence platform.
We rewrote First Insight’s messaging so every release, pitch and byline led with prediction, meaning what customers will buy, what they’ll pay and how those answers should shape pricing, assortment and inventory. We anchored it in proof points reporters could repeat, including the Value Score and a consumer network of more than 360 million people across 180 countries and 67 languages and currencies. The positioning carried all the way through the September 2026 CEO announcement.
We turned First Insight’s consumer data into a steady stream of news.
Over 18 months we helped First Insight shape five data reports, from choosing survey questions and finding the story angles to writing the releases and pitching them. Each report tapped a conversation reporters were already having, including tariff price hikes, AI holiday shopping, digital twins and Gen Z spending. The Quiet Takeover of Private Label alone drove 55 placements, including CNN, NBC News, the Financial Times, Barron’s and Retail Dive, and it was still earning coverage a year after it came out.
We took First Insight’s data into CPG, grocery, beauty and home goods.
We pitched each report to the trades serving the markets First Insight wanted to enter. Private label and Gen Z CPG findings landed in Supermarket News, Food Business News and Drug Store News, beauty findings reached BeautyMatter and Cosmetics Executive Women, and Hunker carried the story to home goods readers.
We launched First Insight’s expansion into Latin America with Grupo Coppel.
We announced Grupo Coppel, Mexico’s largest department store chain, as First Insight’s first Latin American partner and the start of its regional expansion. The story ran in Yahoo Finance, Sourcing Journal, Chain Store Age and Argentina’s El Cronista, and Footwear News and Footwear Magazine followed when Coppel took its AI merchandising pilot into footwear. Nine placements in all, and Chain Store Age was still citing the partnership three months later. ChatGPT and Perplexity now both point to Coppel as the starting point for First Insight’s growth in Latin America.
We introduced Ellis, First Insight’s AI copilot, in two waves.
We announced a beta with major retailers in October 2025, then general availability in January 2026 ahead of NRF. AI News and AI Business both put the phrase “predictive AI copilot” in their headlines for the beta, and the launch followed in Destination CRM, MarTech and Shop Eat Surf Outdoor’s NRF roundup. We also secured a Unite.AI interview with First Insight’s Chief Growth & Strategy Officer on how Ellis turns consumer insight into go-to-market decisions.
We made First Insight’s leaders the voices of AI in retail.
We placed First Insight’s founder in interviews that put a face on its data reports and built a byline program for its Chief Growth & Strategy Officer in Total Retail and AI Journal, where the piece “Retail Doesn’t Need More AI. It Needs Answers.” gave the AI engines language they still use. When First Insight named a new CEO in September 2026, we framed the news around scaling its predictive intelligence platform, and the announcement reached Retail Technology Innovation Hub and Salestech Star. Eight days later, the AI engines were describing the new CEO as the leader brought in to grow that platform.
Where First Insight Showed Up
National & Business Press
Retail & Vertical Trade
Tech, AI & Marketing Trade
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