PepCity at the UEFA Champions League Final in Cardiff

Translating a portfolio of brands into one immersive experience

Pepsi Max bar at Revolution

We worked with PepsiCo to create a series of brand experiences at the UEFA Champions League Final. PepsiCo is one of the main official partners of the UEFA Champions League in 2016-2018. At the final, they presented their brand partners of UEFA in a pavilion in the UEFA Football Village. In addition, they offered a series of other events and brand experiences for their guests. We worked closely together with the PepsiCo marketing teams and the Pepsico Design & Innovation to translate their brands into these immersive experiences on the occasion of what is perhaps the most important football event of the year.

A pavilion of integrated brand experiences at the UEFA Champions League Football Village

The main venue for hospitality at the Champions League was the football village, located in the parklands surrounding the Cardiff medieval castle. PepsiCo’s pavilion at the village highlighted Gatorade, PepsiMax, Lay’s (Walkers) and the Kola House.

Kola House takes the centre stage

The latest edition of the Kola House, a kola bar launched last year in the Meatpacking District of New York City by PepsiCo, was located in the centre of the pavilion. With its huge art-like sculpture of copper tubes, it was the focal point of the space and conceptually connected all the areas.

Chiperie area at the Dock

Second edition of Chiperie

Chiperie, introduced at Milan Design Week earlier this year, provides an integrated brand experience around eating crisps, including
• Interior with its wooden wavy shapes and natural colours
• Lighting that supports the atmosphere
• Food design, including both new shapes, dishes and flavours of the freshly cooked Lays potato variety in collaboration with chefs
The pavilion also featured a social media wall, gatorade football exhibits and a mural by Pete Fowler, a Welsh artist who was born in Cardiff.

Lighting design to create different atmospheres

Our experiential spaces team collaborated closely with our Lighting Lab to create a correct atmosphere for each area, and for each time of the day. The pre-match event calls for a very different experience from the post-match celebrations, and we used lighting to achieve this.

Foyer of the Royal Welsh

Creating brand experiences inside different existing structures

In addition to the village, we also worked on a space at the Dock with a beautiful view over the harbour and surrounding bay; The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, and the Revolution club for the final party.
All of these different venues had different existing structures and characters that we worked with to allow the PepsiCo brands to come across in the best possible way.
Same guests went through all the spaces, so one of the goals was to create coherence, while providing new experiences and translations of the brand values in each of the spaces.

Pepsi Max bar at the Dock

Bringing brand values to life

The PepCity experiences are linked to the overall communication strategy that has been carried out through an advertising campaign during the Champions League. We worked to create a balance between hospitality and brand communication, so that the guests can “live” what the brand stands for, rather than feeling like they are being bombarded with brand messages.

Working as part of a great team

– This was a real team effort. The client is very ambitious and challenged us a lot. They really pushed forward the entire team, but also lead the project in a way that showed such respect towards our work. And after months of working together with the PepsiCo marketing and PepsiCo Design & Innovation, we formed a great team. It was not just that we provided our client with a service or a solution, but we worked closely together to create it. It is a pleasure to work like that, and it is a very rewarding feeling to see the results, says Alice Bonaiti.

Images courtesy of Pepsico #PepCity2017 #UCLFinal2017

Mix It Up 2017

Mix It Up 2017 was an immersive installation that invited attendees to explore and interact. Guests experienced a compendium of historic, current and forward-thinking exhibits that demonstrated how the company has evolved with the times. From the moment they entered the “Mix It Up” space, visitors caught a glimpse of PepsiCo’s storied past with items that trigger an emotional response, invoke brand connection and stir memories.

We coordinated and collaborated with Pepsico design centre and the other participating designers and chefs on the experiential space design, layout, lighting and construction of the project.

PepsiCo for Champions League Final

We worked together with PepsiCo Design & Innovation Center to create an immersive experience to host an exclusive party at
UEFA European Champions League finals at the San Siro stadium in Milan. The exhibition simultaneously presented three brand sponsors
from PepsiCo's portfolio: Gatorade, Lay's and Pepsi. Gatorade proposed an interactive experience for you to customize your own sports bottle.
Video cameras allowed guests to take selfies with their personalized bottles and Gatorade orange jersey and then send photos to their own accounts.
The Lay's area featured a live cooking show hosted by chef Andrea Mainardi to create delicious combinations with chips and traditional Italian ingredients. Pepsi brought the Kola House concept, a trendy and casual space with industrial chic style, where skilful Mixologists served cocktails made with an extract from the kola nut.

Mix It Up 2016

Mix It Up by PepsiCo was an immersive, interactive space dedicated to design collaborations and exhibitions by leading talent during Milan Design Week 2016. The Mix It Up event, envisioned by us, showcased PepsiCo’s recent innovations across its leading brand portfolio of snacks, beverages, and nutritional products. We developed the layout, lighting, and coordinated and managed the construction of Mix It Up.

Cultura Pizza e Vita

Opening a pizzeria in Manhattan’s over-saturated restaurant scene is no easy task. Thousands of pizza places already make great pie and finicky Manhattanites have no time to waste on gimics or sub-par service. For these reasons, Cultura Pizza e Vita had to be different from the others: genuine, authentic, innovative, with a love for quality food, drink, and ingredients.

In collaboration with the Pepsi Design and Innovation Center in New York, our Trends Observatory, along with our FoodLab, started by researching food and dining trends in the US and abroad. Not stopping at pizza, Cultura Pizza e Vita boasts a unique Latticini Bar where artisans make homemade mozzarella and burrata in front of diners. We then proceeded with a full study on restaurant layout design, CMF design, graphic design, merchandising, and all collateral material.

Kola Station at Super Bowl 2016

During the 2016 Super Bowl, the PepsiCo Kola Station was part of a temporary installation for a three-day concert, featuring acts such as Dave Matthews Band and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Combining elements of the location’s original industrial space, the Kola Station experience was strengthened through impactful brand enabled design. We expressed the brand through the concept of the traditional bar and designed an engaging and futuristic social hub. The interactive space engaged customers by showing the Pepsi brand and kola nut in a new light. The space was designed specifically for fan engagement and featured state-of-the-art design for an immersive experience into the magic of alchemy and the Kola nut.

Pepsi Mix It Up 2015

We envisioned the Mix It Up space for Milan Design Week 2015. The event showcased PepsiCo Design’s recent innovations across its leading brand portfolio of snacks and beverages, from packaging and branding to equipment and experiences.

Mix It Up Branding

Pepsi Chill Hub (China)

The Voice of China is a hugely popular show that tours 30 university campuses for auditioning participants. As one of the principle show sponsors, Pepsi teamed with DGI to design a promotional refreshment center. The refreshment center was portable and provided an immersive interactive experience for building brand awareness.

Pepsi Theatre Mirabilandia

Pepsi is a sponsor of Mirabilandia is one of the largest amusements parks in Europe and the biggest in Italy. Those who visit Mirabilandia can watch breath-taking shows in the Pepsi Theater.

Pepsi Marriott – Superbowl

Tostitos Super Bowl XLVII Party Zone

For Super Bowl, we worked together with Pepsico to create a highly engaging and brand expressive space for Tostitos. The aim was to create a temporary architectural social hub for game-day fans to experience the Tostitos’ brand promise, “Making life a party”. Working from a user-centered design perspective, we combined physical and digital design for a Tostitos party zone that featured a social game. The energetic and buzz-fueled setting evoked a pre-game party. The interactive space allowed Tostitos to spatially communicate and engage football fans through interactions that created a positive, long-lasting memory.

Pepsi Crate for Returnable Bottles

Product design for functionality and competitive advantage

Deposit-refund systems based on returnable bottles are widespread in Germany. People buy beverages either in glass or PET reusable bottles, and upon returning them to retailers, they are refunded the cost of the empty bottle. Pepsico provides robust plastic crates to help consumers carry and protect the bottles from the shop, home, and back. The new crate design is more comfortable to carry and stack for the consumers and makes the Pepsico brand more visible and impactful at the point of sale (POS).