Nespresso to redefine ‘happy hour’ with activation featuring Winston Surfshirt and Cosmo’s Midnight
Nespresso is redefining what ‘happy hour’ means for young people via an activation set for Sydney and Melbourne featuring Aussie artists Winston Surfshirt and Cosmo’s Midnight, Mumbrella can reveal.
After new research revealed Gen Z’s extremely different coffee habits, Nespresso wanted to take a “game-changing” approach to the traditional understanding of ‘happy hour’.
According to the research by McCrindle, 76% of Gen Z plans to wake up earlier in 2025 to reclaim “me-time”, as do 75.9% of millennials – compared to just 31% of baby boomers – and coffee is top of the list for how they want to spend it.
The findings also suggest Gen Z are ‘cooler’ when it comes to coffee, as preference is skewing towards iced coffee over hot – a significant difference from every other generation. Gen Z are also the most likely to make their coffee at home to save money (85.6%), but still prioritise quality, with 57.5% describing themselves as coffee snobs.
Head of marketing at Nespresso, Michelle Katz, said the research was reaffirming, and just proved to the brand that at-home coffee is more than a morning drink, it’s a “precious ritual”.
“Australia has an incredibly rich and unique coffee culture. As a global brand, it’s important we continue to innovate and meet the evolving coffee preferences of younger Australians,” she told Mumbrella. “Our product range that is designed for iced coffee, provides the perfect opportunity to engage new customers who haven’t considered making coffee at home before, thanks to the ease, convenience and great taste of Nespresso coffee with a range of milk preferences.”
So, in order to reach the younger demographic, show off its product range, and authentically show support for young Aussies, Nespresso knew it needed to take this “game-changing” approach.
Developed by earned creative agency Poem, the ‘Nespresso Presents: Happy Hour’ activation takes inspiration from the research, and the global trends of young people swapping their late nights for early mornings – demonstrating that the new happy hour is 7am-9am.
“When Nespresso briefed us, they were looking for a creative way to access a new market of Gen Z coffee drinkers. Cultural insights show that Gen Z are living their lives and consuming brands very differently than other generations. So when this creative idea was presented to Nespresso, they got just as excited as us by the idea of doing something different for the brand,” Rhania Farah, Poem’s general manager, told Mumbrella.
She said young Aussies are drinking less alcohol, seeking to reclaim the aforementioned “me-time”, and with the rise of run clubs and the ‘cafe rave’ trend, Poem saw an opportunity to energise the beloved morning coffee ritual.
“We knew we needed to tap into culture in order to pull out insights that would lead our team down the path of finding the perfect balance between engaging Gen Z and leveraging their media consumption behaviors, but also finding that beautiful balance to ensure we could also tell the Nespresso narrative in a unique and different way.
“Australians love a good party, so why not combine music and iced coffee? It seemed like a natural fit, and we’re excited to finally bring this concept to life,” Farah added.
Bringing free DJ sets to Sydney and Melbourne this month, ‘Happy Hour’ will promote the brand’s new iced coffee product range, while tapping into this cultural shift.
Featuring homegrown artists Winston Surfshirt and Cosmo’s Midnight, the activation – which will be extended via a multichannel campaign – invites Aussies to experience the free, intimate DJ sets whilst sipping on “perfectly crafted” Nespresso iced coffees.
“As a fully certified morning person the idea of an early morning happy hour sounded next level, so of course I signed up straight away,” Winston Surfshirt told Mumbrella.
“Good tunes with a Nespresso at sunrise to start ya day off right with me and my twin bros @cosmosmidnight, come chill with us and an iced coffee.”
Patrick Liney from Cosmo’s Midnight added: “Lately we’ve been all about seizing the mornings as much as the night, so we’re happy to be teaming up with Nespresso to bring these morning DJ sets to life over iced coffee.”
Cosmo’s Midnight and Winston Surfshirt
With free entry and complimentary coffee, the activation hopes to authentically integrate Nespresso into Aussie culture.
“Authenticity isn’t just a nice-to-have – it’s a necessity,” Katz continued.
“We strive to connect deeply with our consumers and be a brand that provides value beyond products alone by embedding ourselves in local Australian culture.”
The activation will be extended via a multichannel campaign, for which Poem led strategy, creative, influencer, content, and publicity. Farah said ‘Nespresso Presents: Happy Hour’ is so much more than the events: “It’s a 360 brand platform”.
She explained: “Our talent-led approach creates talkability for consumers, which we can creatively translate into social-led content for paid social channels, press assets and briefs for influencers – it’s all part of a holistic plan to infiltrate social media, the platform that is undoubtedly influencing Gen Z the most.
“We played a key role in ideating a concept to bring the ‘Happy Hour’ platform to ensure it has longevity for the months and years to come – so Nespresso can continue to own the morning in new and different ways. And we love the idea of Nespresso supporting local Aussie DJ talent – keeping it home grown.”
‘Nespresso Presents: Happy Hour’ will be taking place at 7am tomorrow, February 21, at North Bondi Fish in Sydney, and 7am on February 28 at Soundmerch in Melbourne.
You can register your interest here.
Credits:
Client: Nespresso Australia & Oceania
Head of Marketing: Michelle Katz
Brand Manager: Sarah Cocks
Brand Manager, Corporate & Sustainability: Hayley Warwick
Happy Hour Strategy: Soft Machine
Giles Day: Founder
Tom Baker: Advisor
Clara Klaassen: Head of Product Design
Happy Hour campaign creative, publicity & influencer: Poem
Founder: Rob Lowe
Managing Partner: Katie Raleigh
General Manager: Rhania Farah
Creative Director: Jessica Cluff
Designer: Ruby Clarke
Senior Producer: Hattie Morgan
Senior Account Director: Chelsea Wright
Senior Account Manager: Katie Scanlan
Account Manager: Vanessa Chamoun
Senior Account Executive: Dexter Flint
Account Executive: Iris Yuan
Production:
Videographer and photographer: Will Salkeld
Event production: Alfred
Executive Producer: Stuart Couzens
Creative Producer: Mason Browne
Head of Production & Design: Renier Jansen van Vuuren
Media agency: Openmind
Managing Director: Celia Blackwood
Performance Group Director: Shahbaz Khatri
Marketplace Manager: Toby Manchee
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Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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topics
activation
coffee
Cosmo's Midnight
Gen Z
Happy Hour
Michelle Katz
Nespresso
Poem
Rhania Farah
Winston Surfshirt
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