Our target was skeptical of a compact machine’s ability to deliver premium coffee. To launch Vertuo Pop, we introduced the creative platform "There's Always Room for Great Coffee," highlighting how it defies expectations by offering exceptional taste and versatility despite its small size. Following the launch, Nespresso aimed to showcase the machine's sleek design through an experiential activation, offering prospective customers a taste of its high-quality coffee. The space needed to embody a premium feel, seamlessly extending the machine's design aesthetic. And most importantly, it needed to feel unexpected and small to highlight its ability to make great coffee anywhere. The budget was approximately $200,000 (media and build) and the initial scale was one location.

In tandem with the introduction of Nespresso's most compact coffee machine, Vertuo Pop, we designed a functional café ingeniously fitted within an elevator at One World Trade Center in New York City. Proving that no space is too small to make high-quality coffee, the Vertuo Pop Café provided passengers with a unique chance to experience Nespresso's exquisite blends in a setting reminiscent of the machine's sleek design. Riders were welcomed by a barista who brewed fresh coffee while highlighting the machine's virtues during the ride. The intended target was in the 25-35 year old range who value unique, share-worthy experiences.

Our target audience, aged 25-35, seeks unique brand experiences that transcend traditional advertising. To introduce the Vertuo Pop machine, we crafted an experiential moment offering Nespresso's high-quality coffee while embodying our brand's dedication to design.By transforming small, unexpected places into functioning cafés, we showed how great coffee can fit anywhere, and still be stylish.

The design focused on utilizing a small and unconventional space - an elevator - due to its high traffic and proximity to the target audience. Drawing inspiration from the Vertuo Pop machine, the design incorporated its shapes, lines, and color scheme. The space required a functional Nespresso machine for customers to enjoy fresh coffee and learn about its features. Mirrored spheres, reminiscent of Nespresso coffee capsules, adorned one wall, while the coffee counter echoed the machine's curved shape and fluted lines. The pink color scheme, derived from the machine, was applied throughout the space in a monochromatic manner, including walls, floors, and furniture. The objective was to attract building occupants passing by the elevator, offering a space that was photogenic and an extension of Nespresso’s design ethos.

The Vertuo Pop Café garnered an impressive turnout of around two hundred patrons during its single-day operation. However, when factoring in the ripple effect of participants, including influencers, the earned media exposure skyrocketed to nearly three million viewers across social platforms, actively tagging Nespresso and generating a plethora of leads for the brand. Furthermore, this activation earned widespread acclaim within industry publications such as Ad Age, MediaPost, and Event Marketer, all of which lauded the innovation and distinctiveness of the concept.