Building a drop economy around 50 years of hip-hop

Sprite has been woven into hip-hop culture since 1986. To promote the limited-edition Lemonade Legacy flavor in celebration of the genre's 50th anniversary, Sprite needed to become part of how fans participate in hip-hop culture itself.

Drop culture's hype and scarcity

Sneaker drops are a cornerstone of hip-hop. But traditional sweepstakes felt stale against the exclusivity that defines collectible culture. We remixed on-pack QR codes with sneaker drop mechanics to make every Lemonade Legacy a go-to-market channel. There, fans accessed a digital Drop Shop with hundreds of giveaways from artists like Nas, GloRilla, Drake, and festivals like Rolling Loud. Each drop detail page was built for conversion. Clear CTAs, hero video content and editorial stories kept users within the Sprite ecosystem, all the while tying back to hip-hop's legacy. I led the project end-to-end, from project design, product management to delivery of the summer-long Drop Shop platform. (Has since sunsetted).

How it worked

Frictionless entry

Fans accessed the Drop Shop instantly via QR codes on limited-edition packaging or targeted paid media. Every touchpoint became a distribution channel.

Localized and scalable

A custom bilingual CMS kept weekly drops fresh and reinforced the limited-edition Lymonade Legacy flavor across the US and Canada.

Built for urgency

Time-based releases, first-come-first-serve access, countdown timers created the scarcity that drove 184K unique users to participate. Fans knew: blink and you miss it.