Our Work
Explore how Channing & Company builds Better Brands by Design.
Filter by
Product Innovation & Cultural Marketing
D’USSÉ XO Café Con Leche Ice Cube
Product Innovation: Building a New Coffee-and-Cognac Experience. The D’USSÉ XO Café Con Leche Ice Cube shows how brand ideation can become product innovation, creating a new consumption occasion, crossing categories and turning partnership strategy into a differentiated luxury serve.
Most brand collaborations begin with a campaign. D’USSÉ and Coffee Uplifts People began with innovation: turning CUP’s coffee expertise into a new way to experience D’USSÉ XO.
The result was the D’USSÉ XO Café Con Leche Ice Cube: an oversized cube made with CUP espresso, whole milk, condensed milk and vanilla. As D’USSÉ XO is poured over it, the cube slowly melts, releasing coffee and cream into the cognac and changing its flavor, appearance and character with every sip. Instead of dilution, the coffee cube creates evolution.
Developed while Channing Bailey served as Head of Brand & Marketing at Coffee Uplifts People, the collaboration found the white space between coffee and premium spirits. D’USSÉ gained a new expression of XO and a café-inspired drinking occasion. CUP expanded beyond the traditional coffee cup, applying its sourcing, product and flavor expertise to spirits, hospitality and beverage innovation. Bailey led the D’USSÉ partnership across product innovation, co-branding, experience design and cultural activation.
The innovation also became the marketing. Its oversized form, slow melt and changing flavor created theater, trial, storytelling and content, while its launch through CUP x Daily Paper’s Paper CUP Friday experiential marketing activation placed the product inside a New York setting where coffee, fashion, hospitality and community already intersected.
What began as a brand partnership became something more valuable: a new product experience that gave both brands something new to sell, serve and become.
Challenge
On-Premise Innovation Strategy: Creating New Value for D’USSÉ XO and CUP
D’USSÉ came to the partnership with a clear challenge: create a more distinctive, luxury way to serve XO in the on-premise environment and give consumers a new reason to experience the cognac. The opportunity was to move beyond familiar premium-spirit rituals with enough product differentiation, visual presence and hospitality value to cut through the category. The collaboration brief explicitly called for “a luxury and innovative way to serve D’USSÉ XO in the On Premise that cuts through the clutter.”
For Coffee Uplifts People, the opportunity was different. CUP had built its equity around specialty coffee, sourcing knowledge, flavor and culture. Working with D’USSÉ created a credible path to extend those capabilities into premium spirits, nightlife, hospitality and ingredient-led product development.
The strategy was to use those complementary strengths to create a product that could belong specifically to the partnership. The challenge was therefore mutual: create a differentiated D’USSÉ XO experience while expanding the CUP brand and offerings. The opportunity was to invent the experience between them.
Product Innovation: Building a New Coffee-and-Cognac Experience
The core innovation was a change in function. Ordinary ice cools a drink and eventually dilutes it. The D’USSÉ XO Coffee Cube was designed to add flavor as it melted, allowing the drinking experience to evolve over time.
The hero Café Con Leche expression combined CUP’s Cocoa ESPresso, made with coffees from Ethiopia, Sumatra and Peru, with whole milk, condensed milk and vanilla. From there, the same idea expanded across different coffee origins, preparations and complementary flavors.
| Product Profile | Expression |
|---|---|
| Café Con Leche | CUP Cocoa ESPresso, whole milk, condensed milk and vanilla |
| ESPresso | CUP Cocoa ESPresso, spring water and simple syrup |
| Chocolate Spice | CUP Mexico, whole milk, cacao and cinnamon |
| Superior Decaf | CUP Peru Decaf, whole milk and vanilla |
| Cold Brew | CUP Peru + Ethiopia, chicory and maple syrup, steeped 16 hours before freezing |
The significance was not the number of variations. It was what they demonstrated. Coffee origin could change the flavor. Dairy, cacao, spice and sweetness could change the experience. Preparation could create different expressions of one central idea.
The CUP cube became a beverage innovation platform, capable of supporting different tastes, occasions and hospitality environments.
CUP Brand Innovation: From Product to Hospitality System
Building the concept meant working beyond the recipe. CUP’s proximity to coffee sourcing, product development, brand and consumer experience allowed the team to work from the ingredient outward rather than adapting a generic finished mixer.
Origin informed flavor. Flavor informed formulation. Formulation shaped the physical product. The product shaped the service ritual. That connection created advantages across development, quality, customization and future B2B applications.
| Integrated Capability | Business & Product Value |
|---|---|
| Coffee sourcing & flavor expertise | Develop the experience from the ingredient outward |
| Rapid prototyping | Move concepts quickly into testing and refinement |
| Product customization | Develop formulations around partners, menus and occasions |
| Quality oversight | Keep ingredient decisions and experience closely connected |
| Packaging & production planning | Turn a recipe into a repeatable operational format |
| Reusable product knowledge | Build formulations and methods that can inform future innovation |
| B2B expansion | Extend CUP into hospitality, spirits and beverage development |
| Partner value | Contribute directly to what the partner can make, not simply how it is promoted |
The product was also developed around the realities of hospitality: production, packaging, frozen storage, transport, consistency and service. Branded trays and individually packaged cubes helped translate the idea from prototype into a repeatable on-premise product.
Service design extended the innovation further. The program considered individual pours, elevated tableside presentation and group service, allowing the same idea to work at different scales.
Category Crossover: Extending the Partnership Beyond the Hero Product
The value of the D’USSÉ x Coffee Uplifts People partnership extended beyond the Café Con Leche cube. At MILA Miami, D’USSÉ Global Brand Ambassador Sullivan Doh used Coffee Uplifts People in a tableside Café Brûlot, connecting the partnership to a historic coffee-and-Cognac ritual built around preparation, fire and theatrical service.
The moment demonstrated the larger opportunity behind the collaboration. CUP’s coffee expertise could support more than a single signature serve; it could give D’USSÉ a broader territory for product development, cocktail innovation, hospitality programming and cultural storytelling.
What began as an innovative coffee cube was becoming something more strategically useful: a platform for exploring the space between coffee and Cognac.
Cultural Marketing & Experiential Activation: Taking the Product Into Culture
Because the product was inherently visual and transformational, much of the marketing was already built into the experience.
The oversized cube created curiosity. The slow melt created anticipation. Coffee and cognac gave bartenders a story to tell. Consumers could see, taste, photograph and film the transformation.
Product → Trial → Experience → Content → Amplification
The D’USSÉ XO Café Con Leche Ice Cube launched through Paper CUP Friday, the Coffee Uplifts People x Daily Paper experiential marketing activation at Daily Paper’s New York flagship. Rather than placing the product inside a conventional spirits promotion, the launch connected it to an environment where coffee, fashion, music, hospitality and community were already converging.
The activation created a natural system for broader cultural marketing:
- Social & Influencer Marketing translated the product and consumer experience into discoverable content.
- Branded Entertainment & Integration embedded the brands within cultural programming rather than interrupting it.
- Public Relations & Earned Influence gave media and tastemakers a genuine product-innovation story.
- Sponsorships & Partnerships combined complementary brand capabilities, audiences and cultural equity.
- Experiential Marketing converted awareness into direct trial and participation.
- Content & Amplification extended the live experience through photography, video and social conversation.
Brand Partnership Strategy: Creating Value for Both Brands
The strongest collaborations do more than exchange audiences. They expand what each brand can credibly make, offer and become.
| Strategic Win | Coffee Uplifts People | D’USSÉ |
|---|---|---|
| Category Crossover | Expanded into premium spirits and hospitality | Entered coffee culture and café-inspired occasions |
| Product Expansion | Extended coffee expertise into ingredient-led innovation | Added a differentiated expression of XO |
| New Consumption Occasion | Added evening and spirits occasions to a coffee brand | Created a new reason and ritual for drinking XO |
| Product Innovation | Demonstrated coffee as a platform for new formats | Turned ice into flavor delivery and experience |
| Differentiated Serve | Made CUP essential to the product itself | Created a recognizable on-premise expression |
| Consumer Trial | Introduced CUP through a new category and occasion | Gave consumers an experiential reason to sample XO |
| Cultural Relevance | Positioned CUP within premium spirits culture | Connected cognac with coffee, fashion and community |
| Hospitality Expansion | Expanded CUP’s relevance to bars, restaurants and beverage programs | Created an idea built for on-premise service |
| Content Creation | Turned innovation into demonstrable brand content | Made product preparation inherently shareable |
| B2B Opportunity | Demonstrated CUP’s potential as a beverage innovation partner | Created a flexible partnership and hospitality proposition |
The value was reciprocal but distinct. D’USSÉ gained a new way to experience XO, a new drinking occasion and access to coffee-led product expertise. CUP gained category expansion, new hospitality applications and a stronger position as a product-development partner. Both gained something more valuable than logo placement. They gained a new product.
Product Innovation as a Platform for Brand Growth
The D’USSÉ XO Café Con Leche Ice Cube reframed partnership marketing as a vehicle for product innovation. A shared market opportunity became a product. The product became a system spanning formulation, packaging and hospitality service. The system created a ritual. And the ritual created something cultural marketing could amplify.
For D’USSÉ, it created a new way to experience XO. For Coffee Uplifts People, it expanded what coffee expertise could become.
The larger lesson is not about coffee cubes. It is about what happens when two brands use their complementary capabilities to create something neither would have made alone.
Something new to sell. Something new to serve. Something new to become.
Build What the Market Hasn’t Seen Yet
The strongest marketing ideas do more than promote what already exists. They identify an opportunity, create something worth experiencing and build the product, brand and marketing systems required to bring it into the world.
Channing & Company works with beverage, spirits, hospitality, CPG and consumer brands across marketing strategy, product innovation, cultural marketing, experiential activation and brand partnerships, connecting commercial opportunity with products and experiences built to move people and markets.
Tell us about your business objective, audience, opportunity, timeline and scope.
💮 Better by Design.™
Frequently Asked Questions about Product Innovation & Cultural Marketing
Product innovation from brand ideation means using a brand’s strategy, audience, capabilities and market position to determine what the business should create next. Instead of starting with a finished product and asking how to market it, Channing & Company works upstream to identify opportunity, define the concept and shape the product, service or experience before building the brand and go-to-market system around it.
Channing & Company connects brand strategy, consumer insight, product strategy, innovation management and marketing strategy in one process. The work can move from identifying white space and defining the opportunity through concept development, product architecture, positioning, experience design, partnerships, commercialization and launch. The goal is to create products that strengthen the brand and open meaningful paths to growth.
Brand strategy can reveal where a company has permission to expand, which unmet needs it can credibly address and which existing capabilities can be turned into new forms of value. Those insights can lead to new products, services, adjacent categories, B2B offerings, collaborations, experiences, licensing opportunities or new consumption occasions. Channing & Company uses the brand as a growth platform, not simply a communications layer.
Depending on the opportunity, the work can include market and category strategy, consumer insight, opportunity definition, concept development, product positioning, product architecture, innovation management, naming, packaging, experience design, brand partnerships, commercialization strategy, go-to-market planning and launch marketing.
The process begins with the brand and business opportunity, not a predetermined deliverable. The objective is to identify what the brand is uniquely positioned to create, develop the idea into a differentiated proposition, and build the product, brand and marketing system required to bring it to market.
Product innovation engagements can include market and category analysis, opportunity definition, consumer insight, concept development, product positioning, product architecture, naming, innovation management, packaging, experience design, brand partnerships, commercialization strategy, go-to-market planning and launch marketing. Scope is built around the business opportunity rather than a predetermined set of deliverables.
The strongest brand partnerships combine capabilities rather than simply exchange audiences. One partner may bring distribution, technology, intellectual property or an established occasion while another contributes product expertise, cultural credibility or a differentiated capability. Channing & Company helps identify that overlap and turn it into a proposition that creates new consumer value and new commercial opportunity for both brands.
The D’USSÉ x Coffee Uplifts People project is one example: D’USSÉ brought the premium spirits occasion while CUP brought coffee expertise, creating a product experience neither brand would have developed in the same way independently.
The process can extend beyond ideation into prototyping, product systems, packaging, operational requirements, experience design, partnerships and go-to-market strategy. Channing & Company helps connect what the product should be with how it should be positioned, experienced and introduced to consumers, while collaborating with internal teams, manufacturers, vendors and specialist partners where needed.
Product innovation creates something worth paying attention to; cultural marketing helps determine where it should appear, who should experience it and how the idea can travel. Social and influencer marketing, partnerships, PR, branded entertainment and experiential activation can then extend the product into relevant cultural contexts. The objective is not simply to promote a new product, but to give it a meaningful place in consumers’ lives.
Channing & Company is best suited to consumer, technology, hospitality, retail, CPG and culture-led brands looking to create something new, enter an adjacent category, develop a strategic partnership, rethink an existing offer or turn brand equity into a new growth platform.
The strongest fit is a company asking a bigger question than “How should we market this?” and instead asking: What should we create, why should it exist, and how do we build a market around it?
Start with the business opportunity. Share the brand, product or category challenge, target consumer, market, desired outcome, current capabilities, timeline and any existing partners or production considerations.
From there, Channing & Company can define the strategic opportunity and determine the right combination of product innovation, marketing strategy, brand partnerships, cultural marketing, experiential activation and go-to-market support.