From Swipe-Up to Cultural Relevance: The ThinkY x YouScan Case Study

The Challenge: bridging audiences, culture, and active trends

Thinky, the leading creative influencer marketing agency in Latin America that works with Unilever brands in Mexico (such as Knorr, Hellman's, Rexona), had a clear goal: to continue professionalizing the influencer marketing industry, building real connections with audiences to generate impact within communities and on business.

Their proprietary methodology, the Cultural Pulse System, combines cultural analysis, influencer discovery, and audience mapping to identify when and with whom to jump on growing social media trends. But for this, they needed a tool that could perform real-time social listening, understand behaviors, and, most importantly, constantly monitor key audiences and categories.

The Solution: a strategy based on cultural listening with YouScan

With YouScan, Thinky was able to transform audience listening into a living, always-on system.

First, they conducted a granular and in-depth analysis of different audiences, identifying those most relevant to the brand and category. Through social listening, they detected who the main brand promoters or food universe enthusiasts were, and understood — from a qualitative perspective — how they related to food in their daily lives.

Thanks to YouScan's smart tags, combined with its advanced capabilities for tracking images and videos, they successfully identified key visual habits and customs within each segment. This allowed them to group audiences into strategic clusters based on life stage, desired benefits, and interests, which opened the door to hyper-segmented communication.

And best of all: each of these clusters was connected to YouScan and under permanent monitoring to detect in real-time which trends were gaining traction and which profiles were worth activating them with.

This approach allowed them to:

• Identify when a trend began to gain traction within a specific audience.

• Measure the cultural relevance of a conversation or campaign in real time.

• Quickly activate a "squad" of creators already mapped and aligned with the values, behaviors, and language of each audience.

In doing so, they managed to transform the influence industry, gaining relevance, capillarity, and business impact.

Key audience segmentations used

Thanks to the analysis conducted with YouScan, Thinky was able to identify that people's connection with food changes depending on their motivation or the type of moment they are eating. Based on this insight, three "big moments" were detected as strategic territories, segmenting audiences according to their life stage, the benefits they seek, and their interests.

With this foundation, a finer and more detailed understanding of the clusters or niches within each of these pillars was built, revealing the different drivers that motivate each audience to cook or choose a product.

This approach opened the door to hyper-segmented communication: not only were the messages adapted, but also the creator profiles and the trends to activate. Because even if the product is the same, the intention of someone living alone, studying away from home, or starting their first job is not the same as that of a family with children, an established couple, or an older person.

Nor are the habits: it's not the same for someone looking to save time or money, who eats in front of the TV, or who eats on the go. The driver changes, and understanding this in real time is what allows for a more precise, emotional, and effective connection with each consumer.

• Life Stage
  The relationship with food changes depending on the stage of life. A young person living alone and cooking something quick is not the same as a woman preparing food for five children. The needs, priorities, and motivations are completely different. Understanding this is key to creating messages that truly connect.

• Benefit
  Understanding how the audience connects emotionally and functionally with the world of food.

• Interest
  Understanding how our hobbies, passions, and interests guide the way we relate to food.

Success story: the "Para la Racha" campaign 🍜

The Thinky team was already working on a clear challenge: transforming how nutrition brands communicate with younger consumers — a generation that today lives, shops, and gets inspired on social media.

This is how the Cultural Pulse System was born, a natural evolution from tactical campaigns to a continuous, agile approach connected to the real cultural worlds where these audiences move.

The objective was to build relevance through creators, communities, and trends, activating content that doesn't interrupt, but rather integrates organically into people's daily interests. Through Audience DNA, micro-audiences with very specific behaviors and motivations were segmented (like young people living alone who are looking for accessible and tasty recipes), which allowed them to connect cultural insights with real-time trend opportunities.

Thanks to continuous analysis with YouScan, the Thinky team detected that the "Para la Racha" (For the Streak) trend was generating a peak of engagement among young people aged 18 to 24 living alone — an audience previously identified under the "Gen Z living alone" profile. By having pre-mapped influencers with the best fit for that profile, they were able to launch a campaign at the right moment and with the ideal creator.

Results:

📈 336% growth in views

This was compared to the average of previous content from the same profile. This jump in views demonstrates how content, when aligned with an active trend and a well-defined audience, organically amplifies its reach.

💬 26% engagement rate

A result well above the usual average for similar campaigns. The content was not only seen but also generated conversation, interaction, and real connection with the audience.

🔁 900% increase in shares compared to the influencer's average in the previous month.

One of the clearest signs of impact was the increase in the number of times the content was shared. This metric was no coincidence: it reflects how the combination of the viral "streak" trend, the Gen Z living alone audience profile, and the right creator generated a contagious effect on social media.

When content truly connects with what people experience and share, results skyrocket. And in this case, shares didn't just grow: they multiplied by nine. Not bad for a campaign that understood culture before the algorithm 😏

📊 4x more reach than the average of similar campaigns.

All of this was possible thanks to the precise combination of cultural analysis, well-segmented audience profiles, and a strategic selection of creators. But the real ace up their sleeve was detecting not one, but two trends that empowered each other: on one hand, the boom of the elotes preparados (prepared corn) recipe (a reinvented classic that exploded on social media), and on the other, the viral concept of "la racha" (the streak), which was already strongly resonating with Gen Z.

By creatively intertwining them, the brand didn't just jump on the conversation — it did so authentically, aligned with its identity and the universe of nutrition. Because it's not about following trends just for the sake of it, but about being in the right place, with the right message... and in front of the right audience. That's how you truly stand out in a saturated feed and build cultural relevance with purpose.

The secret? blending culture, audiences, and real-time intelligence

This case demonstrates that the power of social listening goes far beyond monitoring: it's a key tool for creating campaigns that feel real, relevant, and perfectly synchronized with the culture of each community. 💥

With YouScan, Thinky not only measured the pulse of conversations but also turned it into effective action.

Do you want to create strategies this relevant? Discover how YouScan can help you read the culture before anyone else 😉