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Taking Nespresso Talents to a whole new level with 161% growth.

Client: Nespresso

The challenge

Nespresso Talents was born out of a desire to translate the prestige and unattainability of the Cannes Film Festival, of which Nespresso is an official partner, into an approachable and natively millennial brand experience. And so the world’s premiere vertical film contest was launched, celebrating a new era in craft and film popularised by social media channels like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.

Nespresso Talents is a global celebration of creative filmmaking which challenges creators around the world to test their creativity with stories told through vertical short films.

As a long time patron of the arts and creative endeavours, this project aims to build brand affinity amongst the creative community and foster young creative talent whilst engaging a primarily millennial audience and attracting younger consumers to the brand.

Additionally, with more people drinking coffee from home during the pandemic and external pressure on Nestlé to provide a more sustainable coffee solution – Nespresso has committed to achieving carbon neutrality by the end of 2022 and looks to drive change in the area of sustainability with this project.

The 2021 winners are celebrated at the Cannes Film Festival.

The approach

We’re proud to partner with Nespresso for Nespresso Talents, having operated the 5th and 6th editions in 2020 and 2021.

Through our creative platform and global network of filmmakers, and in conjunction with Nespresso, we invite filmmakers around the world to submit 2-3 minute, vertical films within the set theme. The entire project is operated through the platform, handling the brief, registrations, release forms, submissions and moderation, through to the judging phase.

42 jury members take part in judging local competitions for Nespresso’s key regions, and three overall winners are selected by an all-star international jury. Winners receive awards from a pool of €50,000 and the three international winners also receive an invitation to the Cannes Film Festival and a mentoring session with cinema experts.

The results

By enabling Nespresso to secure credible, quality creative films from professional filmmakers around the world, the 2020 and 2021 editions of Nespresso Talents have exceeded all targets.

The 2021 edition received almost 1000 submissions, a 25% increase vs the 2020 edition and 161% increase vs 2019 (operated by a different partner).

60: countries - a 28% increase vs 2020
+92%: positive net sentiment score on social media
82%: participants were millennial

As well as focussing the themes around being a force for good, to meet Nespresso’s sustainability goals the brand offers each participant the opportunity to plant 5 trees for every submission. Almost 5000 trees will be planted in total for the 2021 edition alone.

“Genero’s professionalism, dynamism, solution-oriented mindset and capacity to manage such a large scale project across many different countries has allowed us to take Nespresso Talents to a whole new level. They act as a dedicated partner rather than a supplier, which makes a huge difference in ensuring success. We look forward to working together on the next edition!”
Colas Dupont, Nespresso Global Sponsoring and Experiential Events Project Manager

“Nespresso Talents is an opportunity to foster incredible creative talent while engaging with a younger audience that embraces innovation with a disruptive spirit. We are delighted to see so many talented filmmakers joined the movement and shared their creations, increasing our participation rate by 25% compared to last year’s edition.”
Anna Lundstrom, Nespresso Chief Brand Officer

The winning submissions

The three winning international selections were chosen for their sensitivity towards the theme, originality and approach to the vertical format which all contributed to winning over the jury during selection. Watch the Ceremony for an overview of the international submissions as well as the overall winners.

2020 edition:

1st Place: ‘Oasis’ by Faride Shroeder (Mexico)

2nd Place: ‘The one about the shirt’ by Daniela Hýbnerová (Czech Republic)

3rd Place: ‘Home’ by Teymour Ghaderi (Iran)