Pepsi MAX Built a Corner Shop in Our Northern Quarter Café

In March 2024 Pepsi MAX launched a new logo and look in the UK, its biggest marketing push in fourteen years. Part of the rollout was a pair of custom-built corner shops, one in London and one in Manchester, each a stage for local creators to make content. Manchester's was built inside BLACK MILK at 88 Oldham Street.

Kairos Media, now NewGen, booked the café for three days: set-up on Thursday 7 March, the event and filming on Friday 8 March, and strike by midday on Saturday 9 March.

The brief was a cultural corner shop: a space celebrating creators, music and street culture, dressed in the new electric blue and black identity. Pepsi MAX chose BLACK MILK for the corner frontage, the three windows onto Oldham Street and the Northern Quarter crowd outside them.

PepsiCo later described the Manchester shop to Digiday as a corner shop turned Pepsi MAX nightspot, with live DJ sets, nostalgic pick 'n' mix and mountains of soda. Friday was a closed day for invited guests and creators rather than the public, with BLACK MILK staffing the venue throughout.

• Branded corner shop: a full fit-out from floor to window, with the café's three large windows and corner frontage carrying the new identity onto Oldham Street.
• Live DJ sets: music through the day for the creators filming.
• Pick 'n' mix and soda: sweets and Pepsi MAX by the shelf-load, the corner shop made larger than life.

• Creators: thirty came through the shop on the Friday, filming for their own channels and for Pepsi MAX UK.
• Campaign reach: across the London and Manchester shops, the agency reports more than 83 million impressions, 120,000 engagements and 903,000 video views.
• Press: PepsiCo singled out the Manchester shop when talking to Digiday about the rebrand.