Situation:

In South Africa, Nescafé coffee is enjoyed by an older audience. The younger generation is less brand loyal.

Brief:

To demonstrate the connecting power of sharing a cup of Nescafé to the younger audience in a way that builds brand affinity and drives trial.

Objectives:

Drive Nescafé product trial and brand messaging that “Every Cup’s A Connection” for the younger audience.

Budget:

300,000 South African Rand (roughly 21,000 US Dollars)

Project scale:

The packs were handed out on four university campuses with over 3,000 sachets being shared.

Creative idea:

To demonstrate the connecting power of Nescafé to the younger generation, Nescafé wanted to rekindle a traditional way of connecting: coffee and cards. So, we created the Nescafé Connection Cards - a deck of cards where the characters on the cards actually connect while sharing a cup of Nescafé and a game of cards.

Brand relevance:

Nescafé has been bringing people together over quality coffee for almost 80 years. The brand message of “Every Cup’s A Connection” speaks to how Nescafé sees coffee as a way to forge moments of connection.

Target audience:

University-aged South Africans looking for authentic connections and experiences.

The pack is all about connecting through Nescafé and cards. Our deck of cards was created so that the card characters actually connect, with two different characters on every card. The characters share cups of Nescafé and a game of cards to really get them connecting. The back of the cards and the deck box both feature Nescafé-inspired designs including coffee beans and cups. Debossing gives the card box extra depth and texture while gold foiling echoes the use of foiling on the pack box.

Each suit was reimagined with modern and localised personality traits. The Socialising Hearts, Explorer Spades, Empire-building Diamonds, and Competitive Clubs are all laid out in a small booklet with their favourite games.

Deck of cards, booklets and 3000 sachets of Nescafé were put into premium Wibalin pack to hand out on university campuses.

The success of the campaign is how the idea and design of the pack demonstrated Nescafé’s brand message of “Every Cup’s A Connection” to our audience as well as got them to sample Nescafé. We sampled 3,000 sachets of Nescafé to students across 4 university campuses. Instead of just being a coffee brand, it positioned Nescafé as a social, experiential brand. It gave our audience a crafted deck of cards that they can keep and reuse as long as they want and it gave Nescafé a design they can reprint annually as each new generation of students needs a reminder on how to connect with coffee and cards.