Get the Drop

The Drop Store is a simulated grocery store built as a campaign about the water crisis, an initiative of the Kingdom of The Netherlands with partner organisations. The disclaimer states that product data is supported by Water Footprint Implementation and that all prices and products are “mostly fictional”. Twenty everyday items are priced for a worsening crisis: bottled spring water at 198 dollars for 15ml, a beef burger at 2899 dollars for 35 grams. Built as a Next.js front end with Tailwind.

Website Design

A four colour signal palette. The stylesheet defines a near black at #161819 alongside orange #ff7e49, pink #ed76b6, yellow #f8d62c and a pure red #ff0100. Those colours arrive as flat fields behind product tiles and section panels, so pages read like supermarket packaging rather than a campaign microsite.

One grotesque, no second voice. Type is Neue Haas throughout, with no serif and no display cut. Product name, weight and price sit at the same size and weight in every tile, which keeps the pricing deadpan rather than shouted.

Products built from frame sequences. Each item is a 1200 by 1200 image sequence played at 60 frames per second rather than a still photograph, so objects turn as the page moves. A loading screen counts the assets in before the aisle appears.

Shopping Experience

A single scrolling aisle. All twenty products sit in one continuous grid of tiles carrying a name, a weight or volume and a price. There is no category navigation, no search and no filter, so the only route through the catalogue is to keep scrolling.

Product pages written as packaging. A page opens with eyebrow copy and a claim, then runs a benefit paragraph and shopper quotes attributed to “@somebody”. The bottled water is described as “just like ordinary water, but drinkable” and sold as “a status symbol of the times”.

The evidence sits under the sell. Below the sales copy each page turns to figures: 14 litres of water to produce 1 litre of bottled water, 7 litres for a single half litre plastic bottle, then a passage on contamination and rising treatment costs.

The cart is the reveal. Add to cart opens a panel that marks the item “Soon in stock!” and explains that the product is not available because it does not exist yet, then hands off to a Learn more link.

Brand Storytelling

Three named problems. The campaign organises itself around too little water, too much water and too dirty water, each with an explainer and a route to partner organisations. The recurring line is that the crisis affects “the products we use, the food we eat, the clothes we wear”.

A scripted break in character. Every product page ends with a section that drops the retail voice, credits the photography and links out to partners including Simavi, IRC and the Resilient Cities Network.

Notable Features

A downloadable social kit. The footer offers a zip of campaign assets beside the Instagram and Twitter links, so the store doubles as a distribution point.

Related products that are all fictional. Pages close with a You may also like rail carrying the other nineteen items, keeping the browsing loop running without ever reaching a checkout.