International Delight has long been known for bringing the flavor to coffee moments with their robust lineup of creamers. But playing off some of the biggest trends in coffee culture—cold brew and cold foam—their newest cold foam creamer innovation was unlike any other product on the market, thanks to its two-in-one foaming and creaming technology that makes it easy for anyone to make coffeehouse-quality coffee drinks at home.
Our job was to help Gen Z and Millennials discover this new offering with an idea as bold as the brand’s “wild child” personality. The launch campaign had to introduce the product to the market, drive significant brand awareness through engaging content creation, and allow consumers to demo the product with a showstopper activation, wowing them with the ease of use and challenging their conventional morning routine of going to a coffee shop.
As a brand whose purpose is to “celebrate a world where everyone can make room for moments bursting with delight,” International Delight had previously established their marketing goals for 2024 to prioritize the recruitment of younger consumers, while continuing to maintain its brand equity as the flavor and culture leader within the Creamer category. In order to do so, their team set the following KPIs in place for our team to strategize towards to successfully turn Zillennials into long-lasting International Delight brand advocates.
First, the experience needed to create product awareness of their new innovation, plus drive purchase interest when consumers were in their local retail stores back at home. Next, the activation required sparking socialization within the space to amplify word-of-mouth marketing, leading consumers to recommend the Cold Foam House experience to other festival-goers outside of the footprint’s walls. Thirdly, the experience had to allow for education and trial of the unique two-in-one foaming and creaming technology, so guests could experience first-hand how quickly and conveniently the product could create coffeehouse-quality coffee drinks. Lastly, the event needed to garner earned media impressions through influencer partnerships and engaging on-site content, helping to continue consumer engagements post-activation.
Over two sun-soaked weekends, our team engaged tens of thousands of fans with the multi-sensory International Delight Cold Foam House. From the exterior, we designed the 30x30 eye-catching activation to attract consumers with International Delight’s colorful “wild child” branding, while also adhering to Coachella’s strict build requirements. Additionally, not only did the design of cascading foam from the roof attract attention, but the exterior also frequently boasted quick-moving lines that enticed even more festival-goers to see what the hype was all about.
Inside, the room’s design was inspired by the desert-vista landscapes of Coachella Valley and upon arrival, guests were immediately welcomed with a relieving blast of air-conditioning to the senses. From there, consumers were invited by International Delight brand ambassador baristas to sample the variety of cold foam creamers at the circular, focal-point coffee bar, which centered around elaborately large cold foam can structures. Around the rest of the space, the room was garnished with additional engagement touchpoints including a custom oversized cold foam coffee cup swing, a wearable “mugmoji” photo opportunity, and a 10-foot interactive touchscreen glass, which was filled with cascading digital foam and responsive to touch. Fans were also able to create one-of-a-kind foam-inspired beats in the DJ booth, where our team designed the controls to mimic the cans, nozzles, and caps of the product. Additional UGC moments were captured in front of the “You’re a Barista Now” wall and under the ceiling’s cascading vanilla, caramel, and sweet cream themed décor, all inspired by the cold foam creamer’s newest flavors.
To amplify energy even further, the launch weekend welcomed celebrity coffee fanatic and guest barista, Victoria Justice, who served guests their favorite creamer flavor from behind the bar. Additional micro-influencers were also invited to visit the space to capture content first-hand to share on social media, spreading awareness to even more niche audiences. Lastly, throughout the Coachella grounds, our team orchestrated an even wider distribution of samples along the shuttle bus route, cooling fans off with a sweet treat on the go from brand ambassadors on International Delight branded bikes. Aside from the immersive experience, our team was also responsible for all on-site content creation, which we shot, edited, and posted assets in real-time, to then be further utilized in post-event PR.
Most notably, our team is exceptionally proud of facilitating the production of over 2,000 individual custom pieces throughout the entire footprint space. Everything from the large waves of cold foam to the meticulously detailed pieces of vanilla, caramel, and sweet cream décor and DJ booth controls were custom 3D-printed to guarantee quality control and accurate representations of the brand.
Additionally, the 10-foot 3D touchscreen coffee glass was an exceptionally unique and distinctive offering that created unforgettable memories for consumers. Sparking creativity and excitement in all who engaged with it, the technology was responsive to touch and mimicked a user’s movements, cascading foam inside the glass while illuminating the room with a brightly lit, immersive focal point. This oversized replica of the brand’s cold foam innovation helped to stimulate positive emotions within the consumer, and when returning back home, helped to drive purchase interest in local retail stores by associating the product with their memories of excitement.
The foam was cold, but the results were hot. In conclusion, International Delight’s Cold Foam House experience resulted in 357M+ Earned and Influencer Impressions, 8M+ Paid Impressions, and over 25K Total Engagements including 33K Samples Distributed. Additionally, through a partnership with Placer.ai technology, we were able to identify that nearly 20% of consumers returned to the footprint, establishing a lengthy 26-minute average dwell time inside the activation.