When your brand becomes the name of the category, that’s when you know you’ve won the people’s hearts and minds. For years, Nescafe has been synonymous with coffee in Egypt; giving Egyptians a whole new meaning to their mornings, one that does not begin without it.

Fundamentally associated with mornings, Egyptians consumed less coffee during the holy month given that they are only allowed to drink (or eat) from sunrise to sunset. Thus, although we are leading the market, we witness a significant drop in sales every Ramadan.

This year, Nescafe saw an opportunity to grow more love for the brand by owning the beginning of Eid, the end of 30 mornings without Nescafe.

Nescafe’s objective was to gain market share by becoming the first cup of coffee in Eid, which meant reminding Egyptians of Nescafe during the month of Ramadan when they missed their cup of coffee the most.

Our target is normally loyal to Nescafe; but they terribly miss their beloved ritual during Ramadan. We discovered that the same cutback period that posed a challenge for us, is in itself a golden opportunity to play on a tension they all feel given the deprivation mode they endure for an entire month. All we had to do was bring that emotion to life.

On a normal day, coffee marks the beginning of our day and turns our social mode on. It makes us more alert; friendlier, more patient and more tolerant.

So, we wondered: what would happen to us if we went a day without coffee? Or even worse, 30 WHOLE DAYS?

Only to realize the beautiful ugly truth: Coffee in our everyday lives somehow keeps our SANITY.

This was our strategy and our call to action: “If you insanely miss Nescafe, make it the beginning of your Eid.”

We knew we were meant to launch a reminder of our brand to young Egyptians to tempt them and make Nescafe their first sip in Eid. Which meant featuring their beloved cup of Nescafe during the time they missed it the most, the last ten days of the holy month when the pain reaches its peak. The struggle was real, and the challenge was big. So, to prove that we feel our audience’s pain, we decided to deprive ourselves of our favorite thing too. Thus, we launched a Nescafe ad WITHOUT NESCAFE.

The film featured the most savored feelings of preparing and drinking a hot Nescafe cup of coffee, bit by bit. Yet, here’s the surprise… there was no Nescafe. A light-hearted and excruciatingly real approach, won the hearts and minds of viewers as they too felt the insane craving for that unattainable cup of coffee during their fast.

In less than 24 hours, the campaign went viral as the first-ever commercial for Nescafe, without a Nescafe. Coffee lovers everywhere resonated with the message; which directly impacted the campaign viewership, engagement as well conversion to sales.

Without spending a penny on media, the campaign achieved instant major success with millions of Egyptians watching organically, resonating, and sharing.

Moreover, the campaign enabled Nescafe to achieve a 40% volume growth despite having a 15% price increase at the time. We did not just create a successful campaign, we managed to translate an indescribable feeling inside every Egyptian and grow love for our brand without featuring it in our film.

If this is not real love, we don’t know what is.

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