Three concepts for a Pepsi flavour system, headlined by an applicator that doubles as a straw.
The Brief
Pepsi wanted to give Saudi Arabia a new way to drink it.
The market read was clear enough. Cola was still strong, fizzy drinks weren’t, and people wanted more flavour than a single can could hand them. Flavoured waters were eating into the share, cocktails and fruit fusions were eating into it too, and Pepsi needed something that could play in that space without watering down what Pepsi already is.
The ask was a mixology kit; a portable, self-contained way to add flavour shots to a Pepsi Zero base, built with Saudi tastes in mind and designed for the coffee shops and convenience stores where the audience actually spends its time. Three concepts across three budget tiers, three audiences, three different reasons to pick one up.
So we built three.
The Thinking
Three tiers meant three different jobs.
The entry tier had to look like a deal worth grabbing on the way out of a Tamimi, the mid-tier had to feel like a thing you’d notice, want, maybe even gift, and the top tier had to do something the other two couldn’t, which was to be its own piece of news. Premium kits don’t sell on price; they sell on the conversation they start.
So the top tier needed an actual mechanic rather than just nicer packaging, and that’s where most of the creative oxygen went.
The Lead Concept: Fuse Box X
A hardshell industrial case with a foam-fitted interior, the kind of thing weapons or scientific instruments turn up in. Inside it: a Pepsi Zero, a branded bottle, a handful of flavour “fuses,” and the mechanic the whole kit was built around.
The fuse is the whole idea. It’s an applicator, a straw tip and the moment of fusion you can actually watch happen, all in one; attach it to the top of the bottle, push down to release the flavour, and drink through it. One object doing three jobs.
The visual cue was the T-virus container from Resident Evil, but the function was pure industrial design; a flavour delivery system that earns its premium tier by being mechanically interesting rather than just nicely wrapped. The entire logic of the X edition lives in that fuse. Strip it out and you’ve got another box.
Distribution would run through the Joy App and social competitions, so the kit becomes its own marketing push, exclusive enough to want, weird enough to film, and limited enough to bother chasing.
The Tier System
The Fuse Box X was the showpiece; the other three filled out the ladder.
The Fuse Box is the X edition’s more accessible sibling. Same brand world, vending-machine-inspired, with conventional kit contents (Pepsi Zero, branded bottle, flavour shots, mixing spoon); the collectible factor without the limited-edition exclusivity.
Mix-It(s) sits in the mid-tier. A boxed format with a Pepsi Zero, a branded bottle and flavour shots, built to feel like a memento worth keeping. Less mechanic, more gift.
Mix-Up(s) is the entry point. A branded clear cup with everything inside, Pepsi Zero, flavour shots, mixing spoon, taking its cue from the all-in-one packaging trends already moving on social. Built for the impulse grab.
Each tier earns its own audience; the X for influencers and the unboxing crowd, the Fuse Box for collectors and gift-givers, Mix-It(s) for the mid-spend impulse, and Mix-Up(s) for the daily grab.
What I Did
Naming, the concepts, the Fuse Box X mechanic, the strategic framing for KSA, the deck, and presenting it all to Pepsi. The Mindspace art and 3D team handled the design and the product renders.
Why This Work Matters to Me
This is the kind of project that usually never gets written up, because it never went anywhere. It was pitch-stage; no retainer followed, nothing made it to shelf, and whatever happened to it after the deck closed, I never heard.
But the Fuse Box X is the kind of idea I’d happily build again tomorrow. It isn’t a campaign or a slogan; it’s a piece of industrial-design thinking, three jobs folded into one object, a flavour delivery system that actually respects how people use the thing they’re being sold. That’s the bar I want to keep working at, where the creative isn’t sitting on top of the product but baked into how the product works.
Project: Pepsi Mixology Kit (Pitch)
Role: Concept, Naming, Mechanic, Strategy, Deck & Client Presentation
Year: 2024
Agency: Mindspace
Client: PepsiCo (KSA)
Status: Unproduced pitch