The blue room featured 3D artwork requiring 3D glasses.Photo: Courtesy of Crush Studio
LOS ANGELES—The challenge: How do you build a massive, month-long activation that's primed for photo ops, filming opportunities, and overnight stays while also promoting a new product every step of the way?
The solution: Find a production team that's ready to think far outside the box—which sometimes involves scouring local warehouses to find a six-foot-tall pink penguin at a moment's notice.
That's indeed what happened when Mike’s Hard Lemonade recently promoted its new adult beverage—Mike’s Hard Freeze—with a month-long, ‘90s-inspired takeover of a house in the Los Angeles area. Working with Denver-based design and production studio Crush Studio, the brand transformed an entire house in the Encino neighborhood into an Instagrammable paradise—and a space to promote the new product via influencer stays, photo shoots, and industry events, culminating in a public sweepstakes that would allow guests to stay in the house.
The house adopted a 1990s theme, inspired by an ad campaign by Work In Progress that tied into the nostalgia flair of the '90s when Mike’s Hard Lemonade was founded. Ultimately, creating memorable photo and video moments was the main goal of the house, so the Crush Studio took great care to make sure every corner offered a key moment—which involved sourcing a massive house, painting 75% of the walls, staging every room, and creating plenty of custom buildouts.
The end result helped influencers, guests, and brand ambassadors travel back in time via a multitude of '90s-inspired installations, completely overhauled rooms, and hangout spots like a pool lounge, an arcade garage, and a rooftop escape—all matching Freeze’s drink and brand colors of blue, red, pink, and white.
“The product was designed as a nostalgic nod to frozen treat flavors from the ’90s,” said Lacey Hoff, Crush Studio's owner and creative director, who noted that the team drew inspiration from classic sitcom homes from the likes of Full House and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. “The home setting provided so many opportunities to highlight all the fun aspects of the decade.”
Scroll down for a look inside the house, and to learn all the logistics that went into the month-long promotion (plus how that six-foot-tall pink penguin tied in)...
![The Crush Studio team spend quite some time studying long-term rentals in the Los Angeles area before narrowing it down to a list of six houses for site visits. “From there, we ranked our recommendations based on how much the home resembled '90s architecture, [plus] location, ease of rental logistics—for example, 'how amenable was the owner to our plans?'—and guest experience,' explained Alie Bergen, Crush Studios' project development director. The team ended up going with their top choice, which was based in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles—another nod to the 1990s and the cult classic Brendan Fraser film Encino Man. “The owners were fabulous and excited about the project, and the house had a gorgeous pool plus a rooftop for a truly unique visit,' added Hoff.](https://img.bizbash.com/files/base/bizbash/bzb/image/2022/10/Living_Room_MHLF__123.635307d9883f6.png?auto=format%2Ccompress&q=70&w=400)
The team ended up going with their top choice, which was based in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles—another nod to the 1990s and the cult classic Brendan Fraser film Encino Man. “The owners were fabulous and excited about the project, and the house had a gorgeous pool plus a rooftop for a truly unique visit," added Hoff.
The team also brought in a variety of custom buildouts, including a lava lamp wall in the entry (pictured), custom Pac-Man-inspired shelving in a garage arcade, custom trim in the living room, and an outdoor bar that incorporate the product into its design. “We are always trying to be more environmentally friendly, and building minimal set pieces and painting the existing house walls was a great way to do that,” Hoff explained.
In addition to handymen, professional painters, property managers, and graphic printers, Crush Studio worked with backdrop and installation company The Joy Haven. "They made our experience so collaborative and full of energy while creating many of our buildouts," Hoff said.
One key challenge was making sure the house didn’t trend too childish, especially considering the alcoholic product it was promoting. “Not only was the product color palette a little youthful, but the nostalgia specific to the age group that it targets—30s and 40s—was mostly childhood nostalgia,” pointed out Hoff. “We walked a fine line to make sure that we had fun, vibrant graphics that weren’t juvenile, and we were intentional to not include many toys in our throwbacks.”
“We fully wrapped the kitchen cabinets in colored vinyl for a major transformation and swapped out many of the light fixtures, which were also swapped back at the end,” added Bergen.
Crush Studio worked with vintage media company Media Pollution, which provided a '90s computer, a gaming system, and other electronics for the house like a VHS player and an old-school camcorder. "The Game Doc was the perfect partner for the standup arcade games we used in the garage," Bergen added.
The outdoor lounge and pool area also had a tether ball, Tetris-inspired custom planters, and a branded bar.
Each of the bedrooms were tied to a different look and style. “For the blue room we took inspiration from the Fresh Prince and hip-hop references,” said Bergen.
There was also a red room centered around '90s grunge and Nirvana. The space included a camcorder for guests to record confessional-style videos on VHS tapes, as well as an interactive background where they could rearrange fun sayings from the decade.
“This included turning each room over and over as we designed it, but also allowing some budget room for last-minute inclusions when we were on-site installing," Bergen noted.
But getting ahold of a six-foot penguin with a short turnaround proved to be no easy feat. Eventually, the team found a local prop house that had sold one a few years back, who gave them the name of the previous buyer—who then agreed to sell it. “The penguin then became the mascot of the whole project and we started calling her 'Ernie,'" said Hoff with a laugh. "After cleaning her up, giving her a fresh coat of paint, and building a frozen pond base, the house looked complete from the outside in. So whether a wild goose chase (or should we say, wild penguin chase!), we will always make sure we make the big statement!”
