London Coffee Festival 2026

The Brief in Brief

Oatly wanted to bring its Spring/Summer Look Book campaign to life at London Coffee Festival in a way that felt unexpected, culturally relevant and impossible to ignore. Rather than creating a traditional coffee stand, the brief was to build an immersive experience that blurred the lines between sampling, storytelling and performance. The activation needed to showcase Oatly's latest seasonal serves, support a roster of guest coffee roasters, and create the kind of memorable, shareable moments that festival audiences increasingly expect from brand experiences.

What We Did

Working closely with the Oatly team, we transformed their creative vision into a fully operational live environment, creating the Breaking News Kiosk — a chaotic newsroom-meets-newsstand designed to stop visitors in their tracks. Inspired by Oatly's Look Book Volume 3, which presents seasonal drinks through the visual language of a broadsheet newspaper, the activation reimagined the traditional coffee stand as a theatrical brand world packed with unexpected details. Visitors were greeted by a deliberately grumpy kiosk worker, a resident pigeon perched above the stand, live CCTV feeds revealing the behind-the-scenes drinks operation, and a working conveyor belt that theatrically delivered drinks throughout the day. The menu featured playful serves pulled directly from the Look Book, including Matcha Jell-Oat Shots, Burnt Lemon Cold Brew Tonics and Papaya & Basil Seed Smoothies, alongside oat flat whites served in partnership with guest roasters DAK Coffee Roasters, Nomad Coffee and The Barn. Our role was to take the concept from creative vision to operational reality. We refined customer flow, managed staffing and live event delivery, and oversaw every scenic detail to ensure the space felt authentic, believable and fully immersive. From carefully curated shelving to integrated vegan products and environmental storytelling, every element was designed to create a world visitors wanted to explore.

Why It Worked

Breaking News quickly became one of the most talked-about activations at London Coffee Festival. By combining coffee culture, satire, performance and product sampling, the experience transformed a simple coffee serve into something visitors actively wanted to engage with, photograph and share. The conveyor belt delivery system, live characters and attention to detail created continuous crowd interaction throughout the four-day event, generating queues, social content and repeat visits. Most importantly, the activation demonstrated how experiential marketing can evolve beyond traditional sampling. By creating a culturally believable environment packed with personality, Oatly was able to showcase its products while building a deeper emotional connection with festival audiences. The result was a standout festival experience that blurred the boundaries between retail, theatre and brand storytelling and a blueprint for how Oatly continues to push expectations of what a coffee activation can be.