Aperol clocks into the CBD to get Singapore employees clocking out

Aperol Spritz is bringing a taste of the Italian aperitivo to Singapore's corporate crowd, sneaking into a central business district (CBD) office disguised as a maintenance crew to encourage workers to close their laptops and reclaim the golden hour.

The surprise office takeover saw a live music crew dressed in orange maintenance overalls wheel a large delivery box onto an unsuspecting office floor at sunset. What followed was a performance featuring K-pop artist SORN, beatboxer and Asia's Got Talent finalist Neil Llanes, saxophonist Bian Tong and Campari Group brand ambassador Bystrik Uko.

At the height of the performance, the delivery box was lifted to reveal Llanes alongside a tower of glowing Aperol Spritzes, prompting workers to shut their laptops and raise a glass as the sun went down.

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The stunt was conceptualised by creative agency :Teeth and marks the opening move in Aperol Spritz's wider push to introduce its "Sunset life" platform to Southeast Asia.

Inspired by the Italian tradition of aperitivo, the platform positions sunset as more than a time of day, framing it as a cue for consumers to switch off from work, be present and spend time with the people around them. In Singapore, the brand is looking to establish that ritual among an increasingly always-on workforce.

The push comes as burnout remains a concern among workers in Singapore. According to ManpowerGroup's "Global talent barometer 2026", seven in 10 workers in the country reported recently experiencing burnout.

Central to the office takeover was an original song created in collaboration between Ben Rosen of Voodoo Hack Sound and Zee Agnew. The track was designed to follow the emotional shift from being switched on at work to stepping into what Aperol Spritz describes as the "Sunset life".

Directed by Jasmyn Asvat of Bali Prod Films, the accompanying campaign film captures the office workers' reactions to the takeover, with the activation designed around creating a genuine surprise rather than a staged performance.

The office stunt forms part of Aperol Spritz's wider campaign to own the sunset occasion across Southeast Asia under the message "Switch off. Spritz on".

Next, the brand is taking the idea out of the office and onto the streets with the "Aperol Spritz sunset block party", a three-day takeover of Pekin Street in Singapore from 19 to 21 August.

The event will give consumers a chance to experience the "Sunset life" firsthand, extending the campaign from a surprise workplace activation into a broader public experience centred around music, socialising and the golden hour.

“Singapore is one of the busiest cities on Earth. Sunset? Just a background wallpaper, something people notice through an office window, on the MRT ride home, or between meetings. In a culture where productivity never stops, people have forgotten one simple thing: how to switch off," said Armando De Paolis, managing director Asia partnership markets, Campari Group.

He added, "So Aperol decided to bring back the sunset. Because in Italy, when the sky turns orange, it's time for aperitivo: a moment to pause, connect, and enjoy life together. That moment belongs to Aperol Spritz. The office takeover was a playful reminder that the sunset deserves more than a passing glance. And the response was immediate. People stopped. People smiled. People connected. The joy of the Sunset Life proved to be instant and contagious." 

In tandem, Zee Agnew, founder and creative partner of :Teeth said, "We didn't want to tell Singapore about the Sunset Life. We wanted them to feel it. The hardest part was recording the heist without anyone knowing, and knowing that the whole thing had to live or die on camera."

"We planted hidden cameras the night before, one shot to capture something genuine, no reshoots, no safety net. Because content that travels has to be real. The reactions were real, the joy was real, and honestly, it was everything we hoped for. We gave people a moment to actually switch off, and we gave it to them when they needed it most," she added. 

The activation also follows another alcohol brand's recent attempt to catch Singapore's CBD crowd as they clock off. Earlier this year, Heineken Singapore transformed an office elevator at One Raffles Quay into a pop-up bar, surprising workers with an early "first sip" as they left work for the day.

The two-hour stunt saw a standard office lift converted into an afterwork experience, complete with a bar set-up and Singapore live streamer Denise Teo serving chilled Heineken. The activation reached 384 office workers and similarly encouraged them to switch from work mode into out-of-office mode.

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