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Pepsi Spire 2.0

Transforming Pepsi’s business and connection to consumers through a new digital soda fountain experience.

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How could we help PepsiCo use digital to disrupt a traditional retail channel and attract both consumers and retailers?
  • Vertical Flow: The UI needed to be clear and intuitive for all audiences, so we designed a familiar vertical, top-down flow. Users instinctively select their drink, then customize it and pour.
  • Endless Choices Made Easy: Drops that mimicked carbonation bubbles were created to entice selection, organically guiding users to the next step.
  • High End Design: Custom illustrations and playful animations represent each brand’s personality and attitude.
  • Appetite Teasers: High-speed footage of the beverages was captured to create appetizing animations to captivate and attract users at every step of the process.
  • Accessible For All: The machine seamlessly transitions to ADA mode, extending the experience to all users.
  • A Smart System: The fountain is connected to a smart network, allowing locations to customize offerings to their specific market. The more it’s used, the smarter it gets.
  • Super Bowl 50: As the official sponsor of the Halftime Show, Pepsi unveiled updated Spire UI’s in California’s Bay Area and across the country, to get consumers excited leading up to the big game.
  • Pepsi Spire Crashers: Through virtual technology, we helped surprise and delight unassuming Arby’s customers when comedian Jay Pharaoh appeared on the machine’s digital touchscreen for some real-time antics.
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Solution

With soda sales declining across the retail and restaurant space, PepsiCo was looking for a new way to connect with consumers and introduce them to their products at point of purchase. We gave them Pepsi Spire, the revolutionary touchscreen fountain – which transformed consumers into mixologists.

Spire allows consumers to create more than 1,000 customized beverages with the touch of a button, while giving foodservice operators a choice of flexible and cost-effective equipment to best meet their needs. Pepsi Spire 2.0 bridges the digital to physical worlds and transforms how we interact with our beverages.

To make the personalized experience clear and intuitive for all audiences, we stayed tight to a familiar top-down user flow, created subtle button activity to invite interaction and simulated a digital-to-physical pour to round out the experience.

We invited users in and created appetite appeal by shooting & showcasing high-speed footage of real Pepsi beverages. Brand personality came to life through animated characters and hardware lighting effects.

The units are expanding globally, and we’re continuing to make updates. We’re evolving the Spire UI and creative for key tentpole events and activations.

Results

With Spire, we turned a traditional retail channel into a digital multimedia experience that consumers sought out, enjoyed and helped solidify their relationship to PepsiCo and its portfolio of beverage brands. The machines help PepsiCo customers, like fast-food restaurants, engage with their consumers in a new way that is driving sales and traffic. Restaurants such as Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC have embraced and installed Pepsi Spire across the US. Spire has also helped PepsiCo form new relationships with restaurant chains such as Buffalo Wild Wings.

Press and Recognition

  • Red Dot Award

    Interface Design
    View Awards
    View Awards
  • Inside The War To Reinvent The Soda Fountain

    Read More
  • Simplicity of Pepsi "Spire"

    Read More
  • Sneak Peek: Check out Pepsi’s Drink-Customization Machine

    Read More
  • Pepsi aims to boost lagging sales with high-tech soda dispenser

    Read More
Project Status
Launch Project
Related Tags
Digital Installations , Experimental

PepsiCo wanted to innovate traditional soda fountain machines by adding a digital touch screen with a fun, intuitive UI that gives consumers the opportunity to personalize their own beverage.

Pepsi Spire 2.0, the revolutionary touchscreen fountain, puts users in control. They can quickly browse brands, customize their drink with up to 500 beverage combinations and pour—thanks to a simple, fun selection process and seamless navigation created by the PepsiCo Design Team and Firstborn. Pepsi Spire 2.0 bridges the digital to physical worlds and transforms how we interact with our beverages.

Project Status

Launch Project

Related Tags

  • Digital Installations
  • Experimental

Awards

  • Red Dot Award
    Interface Design

News

  • Inside The War To Reinvent The Soda Fountain
  • Simplicity of Pepsi "Spire"
  • Sneak Peek: Check out Pepsi’s Drink-Customization Machine
  • Pepsi aims to boost lagging sales with high-tech soda dispenser
  • Inside The War To Reinvent The Soda Fountain
    Source August 13, 2014
    View Article
  • Simplicity of Pepsi "Spire"
    Source May 19, 2014
    View Article
  • Sneak Peek: Check out Pepsi’s Drink-Customization Machine
    Source July 29, 2014
    View Article
  • Pepsi aims to boost lagging sales with high-tech soda dispenser
    Source May 21, 2014
    View Article
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