Coffee Connections
According to the market research centre of the United States National Coffee Association, coffee is one of the world’s most highly traded commodities. It is the most consumed beverage aside from water.
It’s Coffee Time
The ‘coffee-break’ has become a growing phenomenon globally as a social culture norm. In the workplace Coffee is the dominating beverage of social connectivity and the soggy, used tee-bag is rapidly being consigned to the dustbin of history.
Coffee Culture
The prominent emergence over the last decade of a global ‘coffee culture’ has seen instant and filter coffee brands developing premium priced brand extensions of special blends and artisanal country of origin varieties.
Companies have invested in sophisticated coffee making equipment to produce espressos, cappuccinos and lattes of discerning quality for employees and clients.
Coffee shop franchises and independent coffee houses have become popular social gathering venues for business as well as leisure and the automotive industry has even designed car interiors with coffee-cup holders.
The Coffee ‘Sophisticates’
In cities across the world stylish, Yify Free ‘Coffee Boutiques’ have sprung up and become part of fashionable, urban lifestyles with many patrons sporting their laptops.
Household purchases of coffee making machines like Nespresso have seen a dramatic rise, often as a status symbol or a statement of sophisticated taste to round off a dinner party.
It is not surprising therefore, that for many Advertising Agencies, a coffee brand has become a ‘must-have’ on their client roster. Coffee brands and associated products offer great opportunities for creative innovations, social marketing intiatives and consumer activations.
1. Tim Horton, Coffee With Neighbours
Advertising Agency: Zulu Alpha Kilo, Toronto, Canada.
Directed by Sean McBride this brand activation is based on the insight that half of Canada’s urban population scarcely know their neighbours. This is a human truth I’m sure applies to many communities around the world.
This Tim Hortons brand activation is about attempting to bridge this divide in neighbourly bonding by facilitating social contacts between neighbours over cups of coffee.
2. Nescafé, Instant Connections
Advertising Agency: Ogilvy One, Frankfurt, Germany
Hidden cameras by production company Dropout Films on both sides of a busy street recorded the reactions of pedestrians heading off to work on a typical morning in Berlin.
The brand activation facilitated contact between 600 Berliners in one day and the resultant video edit of the event motivated over a million views on Facebook and more than 85,000 on YouTube.
3. McCafé, Coffee Madness
Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett, London
Directed by Tony Barry the commercial is an entertaining parody of ‘urban hipster coffee culture’ with all its artisanal pretentiousness.
The soundtrack song, appropriately titled ‘Madness’, is by Prince Buster and the commercial motivated over 500,000 views in the first couple of weeks after being released.
4. McCafé, Flat White Mystery
Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett, London
Tony Barry also directed this commercial for the introduction of McCafé’s ‘Flat White’ coffee to their restaurants.
It continues with the promise of ‘good coffee without the fuss’ that has struck such a favourable chord with consumers. The commercial is a humorous take on solving the ‘Flat White’ mystery.
Nespresso and the George Clooney Connection
Famous American Actor George Clooney is also a well known activist of social responsibility causes. He has been involved with Nespresso for more than ten years as the Swiss brand’s global ambassador and sustainability advisory board member in their commitment to improving the lives and futures of coffee farmers.
5. Nespresso, Training Day
Advertising Agency: McCann, New York
The brand’s sophisticated image and persona in Europe is due to George Clooney’s elegant stature and appearance in many Nespresso commercials.
In this commercial, directed by Grant Heslov, he teams up with Danny DeVito in expanding his partnership with Nespresso in the United States with an amusing training cession for DeVito in the art of refined, coffee culture decorum.