How Nestlé Spotted the Coming GLP-1 Wave

A closer-look at a CPG giant and their cultural intelligence strategy.

Nichefire Newsletter
October 30, 2025

In partnership with

Welcome back to FireStarters—your weekly dose of cultural sparks that translate into real, CFO-approved business impact.

This week, we’re coming back to the story of Nestlé and Vital Pursuit. It’s all foresight, food, and a pharma twist that reshaped grocery shelves, featuring Nestlé, a billion-dollar category, and the rise of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.

Okay, so how’d they do it?

Nestlé didn’t wait for a viral tweet or a trending hashtag. They used Nichefire to identify cultural signals that indicated a change in consumer behavior around weight-loss drugs.

That meant spotting early conversations on platforms like TikTok and Reddit, recognizing behavior shifts, and understanding emerging needs—before the average American had heard of "Ozempic.”

Once the weight loss drug movement was on their radar, they used traditional social listening to validate the marketable hooks: key influencers, communities, and messaging patterns. That one-two punch of foresight + social intelligence became their innovation engine.

With Nichefire’s cultural listening in their tech stack, they connected the dots early and launched a new brand, Vital Pursuit, tailored for GLP-1 users.

That foresight didn’t just earn them kudos. It helped them lead a new consumer category and capture a market expected to exceed $100 million.

Smarter Marketing Starts Here

Most marketers waste money on channels that don’t actually drive results. The secret? Incrementality.

Our free ebook, Unlocking Incrementality: A Guide for Marketing Success, shows you how to measure what really moves the needle—so you can stop guessing and start scaling.

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The difference between attribution and true incrementality
Proven testing methods to measure real impact
How to double down on the channels that actually work
Case studies from top brands already seeing outsized ROI

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Take a page out of Nestle’s book: Don't just listen—anticipate.

With tools like Nichefire, the cultural intelligence that powers moves like Vital Pursuit aren’t limited to a select few in the world’s largest companies. They’re available to anyone who knows how to use the right AI-driven tools. Here’s 1 Nichefire feature to empower your team:

Firesearch

Firesearch is the starting point for all research in Nichefire. It helps social intelligence teams stay current, culturally attuned, and agile.

Here’s how it works: Just type in what you want to explore—anything from “gut health” to “clean luxury”—and Firesearch instantly scans platforms like Reddit, forums, news media, and social chatter. But that’s just half of it.

Here’s why it empowers innovators:

Firesearch puts innovation directly into the hands of everyday users by delivering instant, AI-driven cultural analysis.

Unlike traditional tools that only tell you what is happening, Firesearch explains why it matters—surfacing emerging conversations, sentiment, and context in real time. Whether you or your team is exploring a new idea, Firesearch provides immediate clarity and foresight.

Download the full white paper on Firesearch →

Looking for resources you can use right away? Start here.

Don’t wait for trends to go viral—catch them on the way up. Visit Nichefire’s CultureSparks Library.

CultureSparks is a collection of anthropologist-reviewed cultural movements already shaping the future of CPG. These aren’t passing fads—they’re early indicators of where consumers are headed next.

Explore cultural movements like:

Masculinity in the Middle

Homegrown Health

Embracing Bad

AI Agency

New-stalgia

Each cultural movement is carefully vetted by cultural analysts and powered by predictive signals, so you’re not just seeing what’s now—you’re seeing what’s next.

Get inspired. Get ahead. Get acting early.

Or… do your own predictive analysis with our AI tools

The culture decks from the CultureSparks library represent three of the biggest shifts in consumer behavior today, but they’re not all encompassing.

For expanded research in a familiar workflow, we’re making our Culture GPTs available to you here.

The 3 new GPTs are powered by Nichefire, and give you predictive power in 3 key areas:

Flavor GPT: Regional Flavor Analysis: The most influential restaurant and flavor critics don’t write for the New Yorker, they’re on Reddit. This specialized GPT helps analyze subreddits to identify restaurants and their mentioned flavors on a regional basis.

Culture GPT: Forum & Reddit Analysis Tool: If every brand had an employee in every online conversation, Reddit thread, or comments section, they’d spot emerging opportunities sooner. Here’s a way to get a pair of ears in as many places as possible.

Culture GPT: Boolean Builder: Boolean queries might not be going anywhere anytime soon, but Nichefire makes building them a

lot easier. Use this GPT to build nuanced prompts and tackle complex research tasks in a fraction of the usual time.

We love show off these GPTs because it’s such an easy way to monitor people out in the wild - outside of a structured environment.

—Khalil El-Amin (CRO)

A CEO’s perspective

What makes Frank Gregory and Nestlé so unique?

Michael Howard

Co-Founder and CEO

“Frank Gregory and Nestlé don’t accept the status quo, they challenge it. I love that Frank constantly pushes beyond traditional industry practices, using predictive cultural insights to uncover emerging consumer needs and spark innovation across the organization. It’s that relentless drive to question, explore, and act early that truly sets them apart.”

And that’s a wrap on volume 2. For more reading, you’ll have to explore Michael’s takes in “Culture Shock.”