To show Canadians that the coffee from the drive thru tastes the same as the coffee from the grocery store, we built a fully-functioning drive thru - or Cart Thru - right into the coffee aisle.

From beginning to end, the Cart Thru replicated an authentic drive thru experience, driving home the message that though Single Serve Cups are from the grocery store, they taste the same as when you get Tim Hortons coffee from the drive thru.

The Cart Thru installation, was built right into the shelving of the coffee aisle in Canada’s second-largest grocery retailer, Sobey’s. It replicated the Tim Hortons Drive Thru experience, in that people ordered through a two-way speaker box, and picked up their order at the Cart Thru window in the coffee aisle. The signage, speaker system and Cart Thru window were identical replicas of those found in Tim Hortons Drive Thru windows across Canada.

Sales objectives were exceeded. YoY sales growth in the two months following the campaign was +44% and +29%, respectively. In YoY dollar share terms for the category, this translates to +5.9 and +4.9 in the two months following the campaign. For context, the retail coffee market in Canada is quite mature, and very competitive.