In this series, features and series developer Heather Nicholls takes you behind the scenes of some of the most compelling brand activations and events.
This week, we meet Premier Woodshop, the agency behind Original Source’s activation at the HYROX Week of Fitness.
The Brief:
Original Source came to Premier Woodshop with a clear brief for its activation at the HYROX Week of Fitness – to bring the new Workout Recovery range and the ‘Nature Hits Different’ message to life in a way that participants would actually feel.
Premier’s project manager Adam Spinos said: “The brief was to create a high-impact experiential stand, something that would stand out in a very intense, high-energy environment and genuinely engage participants, rather than simply display the product. The direction was to bring the new Workout Recovery range and the ‘Nature Hits Different’ message to life in a physical and memorable way.”
The Execution:
Premier Woodshop delivered an end-to-end service, taking the project from early concepts through to a fully fabricated, functional activation. All elements of the stand were custom built in Premier’s on-site woodshop in Leicester.
Nothing off-the-shelf existed for what the activation required, so the team developed a custom Linux-based PLC controller to interact with the photo booth software and manage the air valves, lights, fans and solenoids remotely.
Premier’s creative producer Joe Wright explained: “Original Source came to us with an idea of how they wanted people to feel when leaving the stand. From this, we were able to build the entire project from the ground up, being as creative as possible with the initial ideas.”
The inspiration came directly from the product itself and the brief to make people feel something.
Adam Spinos added: “From the early concept visuals, the intention was clear: a bold, immersive green environment with strong product storytelling and a central activation – the ‘Icy Cool Shower’ experience.”
The connection between a post-workout shower and an Icy Cool shower gel was the creative thread that ran through everything.
The project involved close collaboration with Original Source throughout from early concept development to final delivery.
The client came with a clear sense of the feeling they wanted to create, which gave Premier Woodshop the creative foundation to build from. The team also designed a simple interface for event staff – a start button to power up the compressor each morning and a stop button to shut everything down overnight – ensuring smooth handover and confident operation on site without technical expertise required.
Adam Spinos added: “The biggest challenge was delivering the ‘shower’ experience safely and reliably within an exhibition environment. With no technical staff on-site for the duration of the install, the entire system had to be remotely monitored and managed by our team – and given it was running for ten days with up to 1,000 activations per day, reliability was absolutely non-negotiable.”
The solution was a bespoke compressor system linked to a giant shower head, creating a mist effect followed by a controlled blast of cold air, carefully engineered and timed to work consistently with the photo capture system throughout.
The Results:
Over 38,000 bottles of Original Source product were sampled across the ten days, reaching a highly engaged audience of HYROX athletes and spectators.
Original Source senior brand manager Alice Plimmer said: “The bespoke Icy Cool shower was a standout piece, with consumers experiencing their own hit of refreshment post-race. With a brief embrace ‘disruption, engagement and high-impact’ the team delivered an outstanding experience for Hyrox athletes and spectators alike.”
Alice Plimmer said: “Premier Woodshop delivered an exceptional activation for Original Source at Hyrox London Olympia. With their innovative sample dispenser design we managed to sample over 38,000 bottles of Original Source across the 10 days, getting our products into highly engaged consumers’ hands.” From the Premier side,
Creative producer Joe Wright added: “I’m incredibly proud of the final product and our amazing creative, production and woodshop teams who made it a reality.”
Trends and Learnings:
The project demonstrated the value of building for reliability from day one rather than retrofitting contingency later. With up to 1,000 activations per day and no technical staff on-site, the system had to work every time.
The HYROX activation reflected a broader shift in brand experience: audiences want to feel something, not just see something.
A display stand in a room full of elite athletes competing at maximum intensity was never going to cut through.
The trend towards immersive, participatory activations drove every decision on this project, from the shower concept itself to the photo capture element that gave participants something to take away.