Submitted by NewGen

Iconic Cornershop

NewGen built creator-led corner shop events across London and Manchester for Pepsi MAX's refreshed brand identity, work the agency reports drew 83M+ impressions.

+120Kengagements
83M+impressions
+903Kvideo views

Case in 60 seconds

Pepsi MAX launched a brand-new look, and a refreshed identity registers only where people already gather, so NewGen needed an activation that put the new design into community settings rather than onto media alone.

The campaign appears to turn on the corner shop working as a cultural address rather than a retail outlet, because the page places it at the heart of every community and treats the American bodega as its direct equivalent.

Creator-led corner shops repping the pulse of their cities, taking a brand relaunch into the everyday spaces of British culture rather than announcing it through conventional advertising surfaces.

NewGen held two events in corner shops in London and Manchester, with musicians, DJs, streetwear brands, photographers and writers joining as ambassadors and producing both online and offline content to raise awareness of the refreshed brand identity.

NewGen reports 83M+ impressions, +120K engagements and +903K video views, and describes the campaign as a hit on social that set the tone for the new brand identity.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

Communities in London and Manchester reached through the next generation of talent, described as pioneering musicians, DJs, up-and-coming streetwear brands, breakthrough photographers and writers.
Corner shops carry community meaning that a global soft drink brand does not automatically hold, so siting a relaunch inside them lets Pepsi MAX borrow a setting with standing rather than assert one.
A visual identity change is easy for a drinks brand to publish and hard to make anyone notice, so the work needed an event people would attend rather than an announcement they would scroll past.
Pepsi MAX acted as host of the corner shop events rather than as the subject of them, with the refreshed identity carried into the space by the ambassadors who worked there.
Based on the available evidence, the campaign reads as built on people documenting places they recognise, because ambassadors made both online and offline content in shops their own communities use.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • online and offline content

Partners

  • NewGen (lead_agency)

Participation mechanic

  • Attendance at the two corner shop events, where ambassadors created content on site and the community around each shop formed the setting for it.

Creator role

  • DJs
  • ambassadors
  • breakthrough photographers
  • pioneering musicians
  • up-and-coming streetwear brands
  • writers

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult type
engagements+120Kengagements
impressions83M+impressions
video views+903Kvideo_views

Why NewGen's strategy worked

  1. 1

    A brand relaunch can be carried by the places an audience already uses, because siting the work in corner shops gave the new identity a setting with existing meaning rather than one the campaign had to build.

  2. 2

    Casting across music, streetwear, photography and writing rather than a single creator category appears to widen the cultural claim, because each discipline brings a different community into the same physical room.

  3. 3

    Running two events in two cities rather than one national moment lets the same idea be localised, because the page frames each shop as representing the pulse of its own city.

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