How can agencies use Narrative Intelligence? A deep dive with McCann

Agencies sit at the intersection of brands, culture, and creativity. They are tasked with making sense of a world where ideas travel instantly, cultural shifts happen unpredictably, and public opinion forms across fractured platforms. Increasingly, this requires something deeper than trend reports or social dashboards. It requires Narrative Intelligence — the ability to detect, analyse, and interpret the stories that shape the world around us.

In the last year, McCann Worldgroup has emerged as a defining example of how global agencies can adopt narrative intelligence as a strategic capability. Their Truth About Escapism research, unveiled at CES 2025, explored how the desire for escapism rewires consumer expectations across entertainment, creativity, technology and everyday life. In partnership with Pulsar Narratives AI, McCann mapped how conversations about escapism were forming across news and social media, identifying the deep narratives that explain why people are seeking escape — and what they are escaping from.

This collaboration demonstrates exactly what’s now possible for agencies: data-driven cultural strategy built on real public conversation, not assumptions.

Why Agencies Are Turning to Narrative Intelligence

Traditional social listening tells you what people are talking about; narrative intelligence reveals why the conversation exists in the first place. It clusters millions of news articles and social posts into coherent narratives, showing how public opinion evolves, who is driving it, and where it is likely to go next.

For agencies, this means narrative intelligence supports:

• global strategy,
• creative development,
• audience segmentation,
• communications planning,
• crisis monitoring,
• innovation and brand positioning.

According to Pulsar’s documentation, Narratives AI groups public conversation into "context bundles", which are then identified as day-by-day topics and aggregated into larger narrative structures. This allows agencies to see both the macro cultural forces at play and the micro-stories accelerating within them.

McCann’s CES work shows what this looks like when done well.

Case Study: McCann’s Narrative Intelligence Approach at CES 2025

Escapism as a cultural narrative — and why it matters for agencies

​​McCann’s global Truth About series is known for capturing deep cultural truths, and for CES 2025 the team turned to narrative intelligence to examine escapism — a behaviour shaping consumers worldwide. Using Pulsar Narratives AI, they explored how people talk about escape across platforms and regions, from emotional release and digital retreat to fantasy immersion, AI personas and nostalgic refuge. The Pulsar x McCann analysis revealed that escapism is far more than a trend; it functions as a network of interlinked narratives, including escapism as self-protection, reinvention, rebellion against broken systems, a cultural default, and a form of technological empowerment.

Narratives AI surfaced thousands of posts and articles that illustrated how these ideas connect to gaming cultures, AI companionship, VR worlds, mindfulness practices, shopping patterns, entertainment formats and even political alienation. This narrative map carried immediate strategic value for McCann. It opened new creative territories for brands hoping to speak authentically to stressed or burnt-out audiences, highlighted growth opportunities across entertainment, technology, retail and wellbeing, and clarified which escapism narratives travelled globally and which remained regionally specific. Crucially, it provided a robust, data-grounded insight story — the kind of culturally anchored evidence that strengthens agency thought leadership.

McCann did more than document the popularity of escapism; they explained the conditions that produced it and the ways it is reshaping consumer expectations. This is narrative intelligence in action: revealing the deeper story beneath the surface behaviour and giving agencies the clarity they need to guide brands through complex cultural terrain.

How Agencies Can Use Narrative Intelligence: A Strategic Guide

1. Build Cultural Strategy from Real Narratives, Not Observations

McCann’s research demonstrates the difference between trend-spotting and narrative mapping. A trend report might say "people are escaping reality through gaming". A narrative-led insight unpacks the belief system behind that behaviour: gaming as self-preservation, gaming as identity, gaming as rebellion, gaming as social refuge.

Narrative Intelligence lets agencies:

• identify the deep stories driving behaviour,
• connect trends that share a psychological root,
• create stronger strategic platforms for brands.

For agencies wanting to lead clients with clarity and confidence, this is game-changing.

2. Inform Creative Development with Data-Driven Cultural Context

Creative teams often talk about "vibes", "mood shifts", or "cultural energy". Narrative intelligence helps quantify and contextualise these instincts.

In the escapism study, McCann could show exactly:

• which escapist fantasies were growing fastest,
• which audiences were driving them,
• which emotions dominated discourse,
• how narratives intersected with tech, entertainment, fashion, luxury, gaming, or wellness.

Creative teams could therefore build ideas aligned with the actual cultural stories shaping people’s imaginations.

3. Strengthen Audience Understanding Through Narrative Segmentation

Narratives AI breaks down conversation into clusters that highlight how different demographics speak about a topic.

For agencies, this means:

• PR teams can craft messaging tuned to specific segments.
• Social teams can identify which stories spread on which platforms.
• Media teams can map where narratives originate and gain traction.
• Strategists can compare narrative resonance in different regions for global brands.

McCann’s escapism research showed how younger audiences frame escape through digital reinvention, while older groups associate escape with nostalgia or simplicity. Brands can’t speak to those groups in the same way. Narrative intelligence makes that nuance visible.

4. Detect Risks Early and Guide Brand Reputation

Agencies play a critical role in helping brands navigate public sentiment. Narrative intelligence is especially powerful for identifying early warning signals — not only when something negative goes viral, but when a belief system begins to form.

Narratives AI reveals:

• emerging concerns before they become crises,
• growing mistrust narratives,
• misinformation patterns,
• topic clusters that are accelerating across communities.

At CES, McCann used narrative intelligence to understand public anxieties about AI, privacy and digital life — narratives that directly influence client risk strategies.

5. Show Clients What the Media Says vs What the Public Believes

A major advantage of narrative intelligence is comparing media and public narratives. Often, the press amplifies a storyline that people aren’t discussing — or vice versa.

For agencies, this matters because:

• earned media strategy depends on understanding what journalists prioritise;
• comms strategy depends on aligning with what the public cares about;
• brand strategy depends on knowing where these two are diverging.

In the escapism project, McCann observed that media narratives focused on technology, while public narratives focused on emotion. That insight alone changes how brands should speak about technology at a time when anxiety and escapism are intertwined.

6. Create IP, thought leadership, and competitive differentiation

McCann turned their insights into IP — the Truth About Escapism report — and anchored their CES presence in it. Agencies can do the same.

Narrative Intelligence helps agencies build:

• Whitepapers
• cultural essays
• CES/SXSW thought leadership
• pitch-winning strategic frameworks
• innovation roadmaps
• long-term brand platforms

In an industry where differentiation is difficult, narrative intelligence offers proprietary insight that competitors can’t match.

Key Takeaways for 2026

McCann’s use of Pulsar Narratives AI at CES signals an evolution in the agency model—one that is more culturally attuned, strategically rigorous and equipped for the complexity of modern audiences. Their approach shows how agencies can guide clients through cultural uncertainty by grounding strategy and creativity in the real narratives shaping public life. It illustrates the value of building strategic worlds rooted in human behaviour, understanding global audiences with far greater nuance, and advising brands with a clearer sense of emerging risk and opportunity.

As agencies move into 2026, narrative intelligence will increasingly define the difference between observing culture and interpreting it. It offers a framework that turns complexity into clarity and clarity into ideas, giving agencies a way to respond meaningfully to the volatility of consumer expectations. McCann has demonstrated what it looks like when an agency embraces this model fully. The next phase for the industry is to recognise narrative intelligence not as a specialised research add-on, but as an operating system for how agencies think, create and lead in a rapidly shifting world.

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