NYX – We Spilled The Gloss

NYX Professional Makeup approached Poppins with a campaign platform and a clear ambition: create an activation impossible to ignore.

Building on the platform “If You NYX, You Know”, we explored the psychology of secrets, rumours and hidden gems — uncovering the insight that secrets shared to bring people together create a powerful sense of community. This concept of spilling a secret to bring people together, combined with product names like Fat Oil, led us to Spill the Gloss. This became our springboard that influenced everything from the overarching concept through to the influencer invitations.

At the centre of the activation was a transformed London black cab positioned along the South Bank, covered in none other than NYX Fat Oil. With an eye-catching and instantly shareable interior full of evidence of the best night of someone's life, we were careful to position the cab so that the rear window perfectly framed Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Drawing inspiration from immersive venues like Stormzy's House Party, we blended old and new textures with retro, Y2K nostalgia textures and patterns.

Every element of our NYX-ified taxi was considered and adapted to maximise content creation opportunities and ways to try out products. The windows became lightbulb-framed Hollywood mirrors, hubcaps were adapted with fish eye mirrors, the interior had a table (with a mirror of course) to balance your phone on for selfies, while the front passenger seat was overtaken by a full-length mirror, a radio blasting, and a variety of products to try.

To amplify the concept further, a pink-clad “clean-up crew” managed the scene with megaphones, encouraging visitors to step inside the cab, spill a secret and capture content. These were filmed from the back of the cab and then shared with the whole of the Thames via megaphone. The secret spillers were then given NYX Cosmetics products for spilling the gloss, and encouraged to apply them in the various mirrors, hubcaps and other reflective surfaces.

Inside and out, we created brand and experiential immersion, generating a huge public reaction and some unforgettable gossip.