TalkHouse x Panoplai: Using Digital Twins to Rethink Consumer Testing

Industry

CPG

Challenge

Talkhouse Encore—a premium, spirit-based canned cocktail brand—was preparing to expand beyond New York but faced a common pre-scale dilemma: how to make confident decisions on price, flavor, lineup, and go-to-market strategy without the cost and delays of traditional pilots or focus groups. They needed a fast, insight-driven way to identify the attributes that truly drive purchase intent, understand regional differences, and refine their marketing before a full rollout.

Results

Partnering with Panoplai, Talkhouse used digital twins to simulate real consumer reactions, revealing taste as the strongest driver of purchase intent. Acting on this insight, they refined recipes for consistency, shifted to taste-first marketing, and expanded in-store trial programs. This repositioning helped secure new retail placements in multiple states, optimized go-to-market planning in four regions, and accelerated time-to-insight from three months to one week. Their data-driven strategy and category insights were featured in MarketWatch, boosting brand credibility and awareness as they scaled.

drinks.talkencore.com/

42M+

combined reach from media outlets

Faster insights

25%

Reduction in research cost

“As a small company with limited resources, Panoplai has given us a unique opportunity to expand with confidence. Their platform provided the data-backed insights we needed to grow beyond New York and into new markets. It also helped validate our assumptions about who our customer is and why they connect with our brand. We believe Panoplai has given us a competitive edge over other spirits-based RTD brands at our stage.”

Rob Minucci

Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Talkhouse

Passion_Spirits_Banner_Mobile_0_4b5ddf7f09

About Talkhouse Encore

Talkhouse Encore is a Hamptons-inspired ready-to-drink alcohol brand offering vodka and tequila sodas made with real fruit juice, low sugar, and about 5% ABV. Founded by Ruby Honerkamp and tied to the iconic Stephen Talkhouse music venue, the brand leans on authenticity and local culture to stand out in the crowded RTD market. With flavors like Pineapple Tequila Soda, Cranberry Vodka Soda, and Hampton Mule, it positions itself as a premium, “better-for-you” alternative to mass-market seltzers. The company has grown rapidly in New York and New England, reporting over 70% year-over-year sales growth.

The Challenge

Talkhouse Encore—a premium, spirit-based canned cocktail brand—had all the right ingredients: strong design, real fruit juice, great taste, and premium appeal. But it faced a classic launch dilemma:

How do you make big bets on price, flavor, lineups, and go-to-market strategy before you’ve hit scale?

Traditional research methods like focus groups and early in-market pilots are costly, slow, and often unreliable. Talkhouse needed a more agile, insight-driven approach to test its hypotheses and guide its next phase of growth.

They were looking to:

Identify which product attributes truly drive conversion
Understand how flavor, price, and packaging resonate across regions
Optimize marketing channel strategy and messaging before full rollout

And they needed answers—fast.

The Solution

Talkhouse moved beyond old-school consumer testing by teaming up with Panoplai, using digital twins to simulate real customer reactions before launch.

Together, we:

Created high-fidelity digital twins of Talkhouse’s ideal consumers using first-party survey data and behavioral inputs
Layered in regional behavioral cues to test go-to-market strategies by location (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts)
Used open-ended feedback to refine the brand’s messaging, aesthetic, and channel strategy

Dive deeper into digital twins. Get the complete playbook for creating and using validated digital twins with our all-in-one guide.

The Results

The research surfaced one product attribute that outperformed all others in driving purchase intent: taste.

Armed with this insight, Talkhouse:

Refined flavor strategy — doubled down on recipes, ensuring consistency and quality across batches.
Shifted marketing focus — moved from primarily aesthetic-driven campaigns to taste-first storytelling in ads, content, and on-pack messaging.
Strengthened trial programs — expanded in-store tastings and partnerships to get the product into more hands.

Why it worked:

Agility - Digital twins allowed Talkhouse to test dozens of hypotheses in a fraction of the time and cost of physical trials
Tangibility - Results weren’t just theoretical—they simulated real buyer behavior and purchase intent across flavor, price, and presentation.
Integration - Panoplai’s platform unified marketing insight and data science into one fast, actionable workflow.

Business Impact

By skipping traditional focus groups and embracing a data-rich, AI-powered approach, Talkhouse Encore:

Their story and category insights were featured in MarketWatch in the article “Is booze making a comeback? The sober craze may have run its course.” putting Talkhouse in front of a broader audience, further building brand credibility and awareness.
Repositioned messaging which helped secure new retail placements across multiple states.
Accelerated time to insights from 3 months to one week.
Optimized go-to-market planning in 4 states, targeting 250+ retail locations
Taste-focused campaigns are expected to deliver a 20-40% higher impact compared to solely aesthetic or ingredient-focused approaches.

What once required costly pilots and delayed insights became a dynamic, predictive process—one that let Talkhouse stay bold without betting blind.

About Panoplai

Panoplai is an AI-powered end-to-end research platform built for teams that need speed without sacrificing depth. We help content strategists, marketers, and product leaders uncover AI consumer insights, run advanced survey-based audience targeting, and build dynamic digital twin personas. From lead generation to content ops to product-market fit, Panoplai turns static data into fast, scalable intelligence. Want to see for yourself? Let's talk.