Nespresso knows Gen Z runs coffee now, so it hired Dua Lipa

With young consumers influencing nearly two-thirds of purchases, the brand is reshaping its image and product focus.

There’s a brand new hook to Nespresso’s upcoming global advertising campaign: Dua Lipa.

The coffee brand, created by Nestlé in 1986, is teasing that the pop star will be featured in a new ad push called “Vertuo World,” which will debut on April 14 and promises to shepherd a new creative direction. Millennial Dua Lipa will star alongside Oscar-winning actor (and baby boomer) George Clooney, who has been an ambassador for Nespresso since 2006.

A new face for a new generation

Adding Dua Lipa to the mix builds on Nespresso’s efforts to lure a coveted demographic, Gen Z. There are around 70 million of them in the U.S. today, a generation that’s still aging into adulthood but already strongly indicating they like the flavor that coffee offers. An estimated 47% of Gen Z consumers report drinking coffee daily, according to food and beverage data insights provider Tastewise.

“Gen Z is a generation that is not only going to be the future of the category, but it’s also a generation that is highly influential in coffee purchases,” Leonardo Aizpuru, chief marketing officer at Nespresso, tells Fast Company. He says “Vertuo World” will be “by far the biggest campaign that we’ve ever done in our 40-year history” by dollars spent. Nespresso is planning to run the multimillion-dollar Dua Lipa campaign in all global markets the brand operates in, across linear TV, online video, and social channels.

From European luxury to TikTok culture

Dua Lipa’s appointment to serve as a global brand ambassador comes two decades after Nespresso launched its long-running campaign work with Clooney. The coffee scene has changed dramatically, as younger millennials and Gen Z have grown up. The latter has been credited with driving broader trends such as favoring cold coffee, unique creamers, and highly customizable coffee drinks that can be showcased on TikTok. Gen Z’s desire to personalize coffee is also fueling retail demand for coffee machines, with global sales of those devices projected to increase from 89 million in 2024 to 94 million annually by 2029, according to research firm Euromonitor.

Ellie Bamford, North America chief strategy officer for creative agency VML, tells Fast Company that pulling in a celebrity like Dua Lipa can help Nespresso as it extends beyond its sophisticated marketing with Clooney, who tended to evoke “European luxury.” “But I think the simple fact is that the audience ages out,” says Bamford. Dua Lipa, she adds, “has a lot of positive sentiment around her. She’s edgy without being controversial. She’s interesting.”

Over the past couple of years, Nespresso has made more overt efforts to reach out to Gen Z through trendy flavors like the Pistachio Vanilla coffee pod and an Instagrammable, Mediterranean-esque Pantone collaboration.

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