For brands, agencies and corporate event teams

Food & Drink Brand Activations

Give your audience a taste of your brand.

Colour-matched ice cream for a product launch. A coffee menu built around your campaign. A branded dessert experience that gives guests a reason to stop and spend time with your team.

Pan-n-Ice brings food, drink and live service into brand activations, from retail pop-ups and exhibitions to corporate launches and multi-location campaigns. Tell us what you are launching, who you want to reach and how you want the experience to feel.

Request an activation quote See real projects
Two soft serves in orange Charlotte Tilbury Unreal Summer branded cups
Charlotte Tilbury branded soft serve. Company event photography, published in the Pan-n-Ice archive.

Built around the campaign

Connect the product, the menu and the moment

The food should make sense for your brand. That might mean matching a launch colour, developing a flavour inspired by the product story, or serving a familiar favourite in a completely branded setting. We work through the recipe, presentation and service together, so the idea holds up when real guests arrive.

A beauty launch could translate a colour palette into soft serve and packaging. A technology brand could build coffee into its exhibition welcome. A retail campaign could offer a limited-edition dessert alongside the product. These are starting points for a brief, not fixed packages.

Our focus here is the food and drink experience. Where the brief needs wider creative production, venue planning or a complete event build, we can bring in our sister experiential agency, Rolling Minds. We will agree the roles and scope in the proposal, including how we work with your existing agency or production team.

Pink ice cream rolls topped with fruit and a Captify branded wafer
Ice cream rolls with a Captify-branded wafer. Pan-n-Ice event archive.
Runna logo printed on coffee in a Runna and lululemon branded cup
Branding on the cup and the coffee at a Runna and lululemon event. Project photography: Rolling Minds.

Start with the occasion and the way people will visit. A short exhibition break, a public pop-up and an evening launch need different menus and service plans.

Food and drink options to explore in your brief
ExperienceWhat it brings to the campaignWhat to plan
Live ice cream rollsGuests can watch their dessert being made, with flavours and branded finishing touches chosen for the event.Time at the serving point, recipe choices and the space for guests to watch.
Branded soft serveColour, flavour, cups and toppings can carry the product story into the dessert.Recipe development, equipment, serving format and expected peak demand.
Barista coffeeA welcoming stop for conversations, with branded cups, a bespoke menu or printing on the coffee.Hot and iced choices, barista cover and the busiest arrival or break times.
Cocktails and mocktailsA drinks menu and branded bar for evening launches, receptions and hospitality.Alcoholic and alcohol-free choices, service hours, venue rules and agreed quantities.
Hot chocolateA warm drink for a winter campaign, with presentation designed around the brand.Serving location, toppings, dietary requests and the balance of indoor and outdoor service.
Savoury food alongside drinksA more substantial food offer for longer events or guests arriving around a meal.The menu, preparation and holding requirements, service window and site access.

We can develop bespoke flavours and colour-match products for an activation. Any recipe uses food-grade ingredients and is agreed through the development process; the product story is the inspiration, rather than a reason to put a non-food product into the menu. Share ingredient, dietary and allergen requirements at the start.

Need to choose the physical setup? Explore promotional vehicle hire for vehicle formats and branding options. This page is about the complete food and drink brief, whether the service sits in a vehicle, on a counter or within a wider event.

Real briefs, real food

Food and drink brought into the brand experience

Selected projects from Pan-n-Ice and our sister agency Rolling Minds. Each menu and setup was developed for its own brief.

Team member in a Saie and Cult Beauty uniform holding purple soft serve in a dessert dish
Saie × Cult Beauty. Pan-n-Ice project photography.

Saie × Cult Beauty: a product-inspired parlour

Pan-n-Ice provided soft serve for the brands' London pop-up parlour. The menu took inspiration from Roseglow, a shade of Saie's Glowy Super Gel, linking the dessert to the product launch.

The idea to take forward: begin with a specific product reference, then develop the food and its presentation together.

View the Saie × Cult Beauty project
Pan-n-Ice team beside the pink PrettyLittleThing branded ice cream truck
PrettyLittleThing, We Are Festival 2022. Pan-n-Ice project photography. Menu and prices shown are from that event, not a current hire quote.

PrettyLittleThing: live ice cream at a festival

At We Are Festival 2022, Pan-n-Ice served more than 1,000 ice cream rolls from branded trucks and vans for PrettyLittleThing.

The idea to take forward: make the menu, live preparation and serving point feel like one campaign.

View the PrettyLittleThing project
Orange Runna and lululemon branded truck at a London street event
Runna × lululemon Shakeout. Project and photography: Rolling Minds.

Runna × lululemon: coffee and food around the run

For a London Marathon weekend experience, Rolling Minds brought together artisan coffee, fresh bagels and pizza slices in a custom-branded truck.

The idea to take forward: choose a menu that fits what the audience is doing, as well as how the campaign looks.

View the Rolling Minds project

From first brief to event day

Plan the creative and the service together

  1. The brief

    Share the campaign, audience, dates, locations and budget range. Tell us what guests should encounter, taste and do, and which decisions already belong to your team or agency.

  2. The concept and menu

    We discuss the food or drink, its link to the product and a service format suited to the venue. Bespoke recipe development and any sampling or tasting stage should be scoped before production starts.

  3. The branding

    Agree the visible details: counters or vehicles, menus, cups, edible branding and team presentation where required. Artwork approvals, print specifications and production deadlines belong in the plan.

  4. The service and logistics

    Confirm staffing, quantities, peak periods, delivery access and equipment requirements. We work through the guest approach, order and collection points alongside the venue or production team.

  5. The handover

    Before the event, agree who signs off the setup and who is the on-site contact. Include breakdown, collection and any agreed post-event deliverables in the scope, so responsibilities remain clear after the last serving.

Bartender straining a yellow cocktail from a copper shaker into a martini glass at an outdoor bar
Cocktail preparation for Contagious and festival partners at Cannes Lions 2024. Project and photography: Rolling Minds.

A clear proposal for a bespoke activation

The quote should reflect the creative ambition and the practical work involved. A staffed bar inside an existing exhibition stand has a different scope from a new product-led pop-up in several locations.

Food, drink and service
Menu, agreed quantities, service hours, team and equipment.
Creative and branding
Recipe development, artwork, print, packaging and custom production that the brief requires.
Location and logistics
Travel, deliveries, installation, storage, venue requirements and collection.
Wider event production
Any additional build, venue, entertainment or production work, with responsibilities and costs identified separately.

Not every item is included in every booking. We will use the proposal to distinguish the agreed service from optional development and wider production.

What to send with your enquiry

  • The brand, product and campaign objective.
  • Dates, locations and the expected audience, including likely busy periods.
  • The food or drink you have in mind, plus any colour or flavour references.
  • A venue plan or photographs, with known access, power, water and storage arrangements.
  • Brand guidelines, artwork deadlines and your agency or production contacts.
  • The budget range and what it needs to cover.

If you are still shaping the idea, send what you have. We can start by identifying the decisions that matter most.

Brief us on your activation

Food and drink brand activation FAQs

How is this different from event catering?

The food and drink are developed as part of the campaign: the product story, colour, flavour, branding and guest interaction inform the service. You can also enquire for straightforward staffed catering if that is what the event needs.

Can you match our product's colour or develop a bespoke flavour?

Yes. We can explore colour-matched products and bespoke flavours for a brief. Send visual references and the flavour notes or product story you want to express. Recipe feasibility, food-grade ingredients, dietary requirements, development costs and approval timings are confirmed for the project.

Can you work with our creative agency or production company?

Yes. We can focus on the food and drink element within an existing campaign. Share the proposed setup and your team's responsibilities so we can agree equipment integration, branding, venue requirements and service. Wider production can also be discussed with our sister agency Rolling Minds.

Do we need to hire a truck?

No. A counter, cart or bar may be more suitable for the venue and guest journey. Choose the service and space first. If a vehicle is part of the idea, our promotional vehicle hire page covers the formats and branding options.

Can you support more than one location?

Multi-location campaigns can be discussed. Send the proposed route, dates and service hours for each stop. Availability, travel, repeat setup, storage and the requirements of each site need to be confirmed before the campaign is booked.

How much does a food brand activation cost, and how early should we enquire?

There is no single price for a bespoke activation. Menu development, quantities, staffing, branding, location and production all affect the scope. Enquire with your date and budget range as soon as possible, especially where new recipes, print or custom builds are involved. We will confirm feasibility and lead times against the brief.

Tell us what you are launching

Send your brief, dates, locations and budget range. We will help shape the food and drink experience and put the proposed scope into a tailored quote.

Request an activation quote

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