Nespresso Vertuo AR

Innovation is a core pillar of the Nespresso brand. In preparation for launching their innovative centrifusion technology into the coffee world, we teamed up to find a way to use experiential marketing technology to introduce and reinforce key messages during staff training. Taking advantage of renewed interest in augmented reality, the resulting set of AR-triggered, coffee-inspired experiences explored the story of Nespresso’s new Vertuo coffee pods at events across Australia.

Rapid experimentation and iteration are always a big part of our process, and this project was no exception. To produce this digital marketing tool, we had a whirlwind timeline of just 6 weeks beginning to end. That 6 weeks included not only conceptualising, building and polishing the experience, but also some down-and-dirty research and development into how to technically execute the idea. While this timeline pushed the limits of what was possible, it also proved a valuable test of how quickly and effectively we could translate R&D into a polished output, all while iterating on the fly.

The final Nespresso Vertuo AR experiential marketing tool consisted of three 10-15 second augmented reality animations designed to bring core training messages to life. Integrating into the ‘artistic masterclass’ format of Nespresso Boutiques, these experiential marketing animations needed to be visually pleasing and able to run easily and reliably on mobile devices.

Given the time constraints, we adopted a more stylised art direction that was both visually beautiful and able to be executed quickly. Inspired by the movement and texture of both liquid and granulated forms of coffee, the idea was to use stylised fluid simulations and particle effects to tell the story behind each training module through a series of abstract yet engaging metaphors.

Transforming our artistic direction into actual visual effects was probably the biggest challenge of this project. In order to get the coffee particle and liquid effects we wanted, we’d need the kind of fluid simulations usually used in film VFX. The problem here was that these effects are typically very heavy to render and generally not designed for use on mobile devices.

Not only did we need to convert these effects into real-time, we also needed to make them light enough to be used in mobile augmented reality. Thanks to some solid R&D from the team, we were able to develop a pipeline for creating our simulations in Houdini before exporting them to Unreal Engine where we could tackle the problem of optimisation for use in a real-time mobile application.

Nespresso Vertuo AR was rolled out to over 600 staff at 20 training sessions across every state in Australia. Using cutting-edge technology to engage staff with key training messages, the digital marketing tool amplified the brand’s dedication to innovation in both product and process.

The project also demonstrated the potential of augmented reality in the contexts of both staff training and experiential marketing. With the integration of this technology into consumer-level devices, companies have a unique and accessible way to support more memorable brand experiences.